THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


/'', 


ck: 


PRINCESS'S    PALACE,    PETROPOLIS 


TROPICAL    AMERICA 


BY 

ISAAC    N.    FORD 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW   YORK 
CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1893 


COPYRIGHT,   1893,   BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS. 


TO  DONALD  NICHOLSON 


My  Dear  Sir: 

I  wish  to  connect  tJiis  volume  with  your  name,  not  merely  because 
the  journeys  in  Tropical  America  of  which  it  bears  record  were 
undertaken  with  your  encouragement  and  co-operation,  but  also 
because  twenty  years  of  intimate  acquaintance  during  working 
hours  have  unerringly  revealed  the  strong  fibre  of  your  char- 
acter and  the  graces  of  your  friendship.  It  is  a  pleasure  to 
make  public  acknowledgment  of  the  fine-  qualities  of  heart  and 
mind  which  all  your  associates  have  recognized.  Permit  me, 
my  dear  sir,  to  retnain,  with  high  personal  regard,  most  faith- 
fully yours, 

ISAAC  N.   FORD 


14701CJ2 


PREFACE 

In  making  the  circuit  of  Tropical  America  described 
in  these  pages  I  was  received  with  uniform  kindness 
by  the  representatives  of  the  United  States  Government 
in  nearly  all  the  capitals  and  ports  which  I  visited.  It 
is  at  once  a  duty  and  a  pleasure  to  acknowledge  their 
hospitality  and  aid,  while  it  would  be  manifestly  im- 
proper to  hold  them  responsible  in  any  degree  for  the 
opinions  expressed  in  this  volume.  By  introducing  me 
to  well-informed  men  and  by  many  other  courtesies 
they  greatly  facilitated  my  investigation  of  political 
and  commercial  conditions.  I  may  at  least  express 
gratefully  my  pressing  obligations  to  Consul  Baker,  of 
Buenos  Ayres ;  to  the  American  Ministers  in  Lima, 
Cardcas,  and  Mexico ;  to  Consul-General  Adamson  in 
Panama;  and  to  Consul-General  Williams  in  Havana. 
I  have  also  to  thank  Mr.  Charles  R.  Flint  and  Mr. 
Irving  King  of  New  York  for  their  courtesy  in  providing 
photographs  for  four  of  the  illustrations. 

Returning  to  Cuba  while  this  volume  is  in  press,  I 
find  overwhelming  evidence  of  the  successful  operation 
of  the  policy  of  commercial  union  with  the  United 
States  and  of  the  development  of  annexation  sentiment. 
I  am  well  pleased,  however,  to  leave  the  chapter  on 
"  The  Last  Spanish  Stronghold  "  as  it  was  written.  If 
it  be  a  more  conservative  view  of  the  Cuban  question 
than  the  facts  now  seem  to  justif3%  I  shall  not  be  ex- 


VI  PREB^ACE 

posed  to  criticism  for  exaggerating  the  importance   of 
the  annexation  movement. 

I  have  sought  to  exercise  sobriety  of  judgment  in 
commenting  upon  recent  revolutionary  movements  in 
Brazil,  the  Plate  countries,  and  Chili,  and  also  in  de- 
scribing the  travesties  on  republican  government  enacted 
in  Colombia  and  Venezuela.  Administrative  corruption 
and  military  usurpation  are  the  vices  of  Spanish- Ameri- 
can civilization ;  but  it  has  also  great  virtues  —  notably 
flexibility  in  dealing  with  inferior  races,  a  genuine  love 
of  country,  and  energy  in  the  development  of  industrial 
resources.  There  is  vastly  more  to  admire  than  there 
is  to  censure  in  the  Southern  half  of  our  Continent. 

I.  N.  F. 

Havana,  December  7,  1892. 


CONTENTS 


I.     A  Voyage  to  Rio 

PAGE 

Short  Notice  for  a  Long  Journey  —  A  Cargo  of  Jonahs  —  St. 
Thomas  as  a  Naval  Station  —  Lights  and  Shadows  of  West 
Indian  History  —  Glimpses  of  Martinique  and  Barbadoes  — 
Brazilian  Coast  Towns  —  Evolution  of  Native  Costumes  — 
Characteristics  of  Rio  de  Janeiro 1 

II.    Rio's  Three  Glorious  Days 

Mutiny  of  the  Battalions  —  General  Deodoro's  Bravado  —  The  Re- 
public proclaimed  —  The  Emperor's  Surrender  —  An  Orleans 
Bargain  —  General  Causes  of  Disaffection  with  the  Empire  — 
The  Revolution  a  Lottery 26 

III.    Petropolis  without  an  Emperor 

Journey  to  the  Brazilian  Catskills  —  Christmas  in  a  Lovely  Valley 
—  A  Palace  Closed  and  Sealed  —  A  Shabby-Genteel  Court  — 
Departure  of  the  Imperial  Exiles  —  Clericalism  at  Court  — 
The  Empress's  Death 44 

IV.  A  New  Era  in  Brazil 

American  Precedents  followed  —  An  Enlightened  Scheme  of  Con- 
stitutional Law  —  Deodoro's  Dictatorship  and  Downfall  — 
Disestablishment  of  the  Church  —  Home  Rule  —  Financial  Dis- 
orders —  A  Struggle  from  Darkness  to  Light 68 

V.  Entrance  of  the  Plate 

How  a  Commercial  Empire  has  been  Won  —  Humble  Pie  for  an 
American  —  European  Maritime  Enterprise  —  Montevideo  and 
its  Suburbs  —  Night  Passage  to  Buenos  Ayres 74 

vii 


Vm  CONTENTS 

"VT.    Across  the  Argentine 

PAGE 

New  Harbor  of  Buenos  Ayres  —  Chicago  Latitude  South  —  La 
Plata  and  its  Port  —  Rapid  Progress  of  Rosario  —  Agricultural 
Colonies  —  Mediaeval  Cordova  —  Over  the  Pampas  to  Mendoza 

—  The  Argentine's  Best  Investment  —  An  Orgy  of  Currency 
Inflation  and  Speculation  —  Political  Cabals  and  Jobbery  — 
The  Revolution  of  July,  1890  —  Future  of  the  Argentine 87 

VIL     The  Heart  of  the  Andes 

A  Picturesque  but  Mendacious  Guide  —  Mule  Ride  through  Uspal- 
lata  —  An  Attack  of  Sori'oche  —  First  Glimpse  of  the  Highest 
Cordilleras  —  Ascent  of  the  Cumbre  —  Adventures  with  a 
Drunken  Guide 126 

VIII.     Chili  and  its  Civil  War 

Signs  of  Patriotism  and  Thrift  —  A  Homogeneous  Population  — 
Santiago  and  Valparaiso  —  Development  of  European  Trade  — 
The  Constitutional  Conflict  —  The  Civil  War  —  Downfall  of 
Balmaceda 143 

IX.    The  Rainless  Coast 

A  Stupendous  Natural  Phenomenon  —  The  Chilian  Seaboard  — 
Antof agasta  and  Iquique  —  Nitrate  Beds  —  The  Flag  at  Arica 

—  The  Peruvian  Coast  —  Repudiation  of  Paper  Money  — 
Down  the  Andes  in  a  Hand-Car  —  Mr.  Meigg's  Engineering 
Feats  —  An  Irrational  National  Policy  —  A  Master-Stroke  of 
Finance  and  Diplomacy 165 

X.     Lima  in  Carnival  Week 

A  Saturnalia  of  Practical  Joking  —  Beauty  of  the  Women — A 
Shabby  but  Delightful  City  —  Past  and  Present  in  the  Rimac 
Valley  —  Miraflores  and  Chorillos 194 

XT.     Guayaquil  and  the  Isthmus 

Voyage  from  Callao  to  Panama  —  Ecuador's  Busy  Port  —  The 
Isthmus  Capital  —  Water  after  Cognac  and  Champagne  —  Con- 
flicting views  of  the  French  Canal  —  Extension  of  the  Conces- 
sions —  Probable  Action  of  the  Colombian  Government 209 


CONTENTS  IX 

XII.     Cartagena  and  Caracas 

PAGE 

The  Chief  Fortress  of  the  Spanish  Main  —  Home  of  President 
Nunez  —  The  Colombian  Travesty  of  Republican  Government 

—  Venezuelan  Coast  Towns  —  American  Commercial  Enter- 
prise—  Birthplace  of  Bolivar  —  Kevolt  against  Guzman  Blanco 

—  A  Presidential  Inauguration  at  Caracas 224 

Xin.    Jamaica  and  the  Bahamas 

Port  Royal  as  a  Naval  Station  —  Kingston  and  Rural  Jamaica  — 
The  West-Indian  Exhibition  —  A  Canadian  Flirtation  with 
Poor  Relations  —  Reciprocity  with  American  Commercial  De- 
pendencies —  A  Working  Governor  —  Bahama  Hemp  and  Cane 
Sugar — Industrial  Condition  of  the  British  West  Indies  —  San 
Salvador 242 

XIV.    The  Last  Spanish  Stronghold 

Along  the  Cuban  Coast  —  Expedients  for  Harassing  American 
Shipping  — Vanity  Fair  in  Cienfuegos  —  Aspects  of  the  Cuban 
Capital  —  Signs  of  Exhaustion  in  Matanzas  —  American  Oppor- 
tunities and  Responsibilities  —  The  Last  Market  for  Cane 
Sugar  —  Unreciprocal  Protection  Ruinous  to  Cuba  —  Havana 
Helpless  but  Washington  Powerful  —  Annexation  and  Com- 
mercial Union 260 

XV.    A  Circuit  of  Mexican  Towns 

Ruined  Races  and  Prosperous  Industries  of  Yucatan  —  New  Har- 
bor Works  at  Tampico  —  Vera  Cruz  in  White  Cerements  — 
Old-Time  Scenes  in  Orizaba  —  Puebla  and  Cholula  —  The 
most  Prosaic  Capital  of  Spanish  America  —  Toluca  and  Morelia 

—  Lake  Patzcuaro  and  Tzintzuntzan  —  An  Indian  Art-Idol  in 
a  Ruined  Church  —  Contrast  between  Aguas  Calientes  and 
San  Luis  Potosi  —  Monterey  in  a  Transition  Stage 291 

XVI.    Future  of  Mexico. 

The  Agricultural  Industries  —  The  Cactus  Procession  —  Conser- 
vatism and  Labor  —  Blunders  of  American  Diplomacy  and 
Tariff-Making  —  Commercial  Union  between  Silver-Producing 
Countries  —  Signs  of  Progress  —  A  New  Order  of  Intellectual 
Independence  323 


X  CONTENTS 

XVII.    The  Mosquito  Reservation 

FAGE 

A  Region  of  Anomalies  —  Moravian  Missions  in  Bluefields  — 
The  Mosquito  Crown  Captured  by  a  Yankee  — Negro  Rule  and 
Nicaraguan  Ambition  —  Voyage  with  a  Carib  Pilot  —  The 
Coral  Cays  and  Monkey  Point  —  A  Dead  Calm  in  the  Carib- 
bean —  A  Diet  of  Young  Cocoanuts 341 

XVIII.     Up  the  San  Juan 

Contrast  between  Panama  and  Greytown  —  The  Nicaragua  Canal 

—  Passage  of  the  Colorado  Bar  —  The  Central  American  Forest 

—  The  Rival  Interoceauic  Waterways  —  Lake  Nicaragua  — 
Walker's  Exploits — American  Control  over  an  Interoceauic 
Canal 358 

XIX.     Glimpses  of  Central  America 

Cities  and  Scenery  of  the  Western  Plateau  —  Passion-Plays  and 
Religious  Processions — Progress  of  Costa  Rica  —  Faction  Feuds 
and  Standing  Armies  —  The  Barrundia  Affair  —  Federation 
and  Railway  Construction*. 376 

XX.    Our  Continent 

European  Commercial  Dependencies  —  The  Monroe  Doctrine  Un- 
intelligible to  Southern  Races  —  The  Pan-American  Congress 

—  The  Reciprocity  Policy  —  The  Three  Americas'  Railway  — 
Interoceanic  Canals  —  American  Trade  Dependent  upon  the 
Reproduction  of  Eui'opean  Enterprise 390 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

princess's   palace,  petropolis Frontispiece 

Fronting  pagf 

author's   itinerary 1 

market  scene,  danish  west  indies 6 

PERNAMBUCO 16 

BAHIA 32 

A    BRAZILIAN    PORT 60 

PLAZA    CAGANCHA,    MONTEVIDEO 82 

STREET    IN    BUENOS    AYRES     90 

CATHEDRAL    AND    CABILDO,    CORDOVA 104 

ARTURO    PRAT    MONUMENT,    VALPARAISO 154 

NEW    VERRUGAS     BRIDGE 184 

CATHEDRAL,    LIMA 198 

CARACAS,     FROM    PUBLIC    GARDENS 234 

STREET    SCENE    IN    BARB  A  DOES 246 

PLAZA    IN    CIENFUEGOS 266 

MORELIA 310 

MOUTH    OF    THE    CHAGRES 392 

xiii 


TROPICAL   AMERICA 


TROPICAL   AMERICA 
I 

A  VOYAGE   TO   RIO 

SHOKT     NOTICE     FOR     A      LONG      JOURNEY  —  A     CARGO      OF  ■ 

JONAHS ST.     THOMAS     AS     A    NAVAL     STATION  LIGHTS 

AND     SHADOWS     OF     WEST     INDIAN     HISTORY  GLIMPSES 

OF  MARTINIQUE  AND  BARBADOES  —  BRAZILIAN  COAST 
TOWNS EVOLUTION  OF  NATIVE  COSTUMES  CHARAC- 
TERISTICS   OF    RIO    DE    JANEIRO 

For  a  journey  around  Tropical  America  I  received 
the  short  notice  of  forty-eight  hours.  The  summons 
came  as  the  sequel  to  the  lucky  twirl  of  a  penny.  The 
revolution  in  Brazil  had  occurred  on  the  15th  of  No- 
vember, 1889,  but  for  three  days  the  press  despatches 
had  been  meagre  and  unintelligible.  One  afternoon, 
as  I  was  sitting  at  the  reading-table  of  one  of  the 
pleasantest  editorial  rooms  in  New  York,  an  associate 
exclaimed,  "  Somebody  ought  to  go  to  Brazil  by  the 
first  steamer ! "  The  prospect  of  a  long  voyage  in  the 
tropics  opened  an  attractive  vista  before  eyes  that  were 
weary  of  looking  at  the  four  walls  of  the  same  room 
after  twenty  years  of  office  routine.  "  I  am  ready," 
was  my  quick  response,  "unless  you  wish  to  go.  Or 
shall  we  flip  a  penny  for  it  ?  "  Laughingly  we  agreed 
that  the  winner  was  to  sail  for  Rio  de  Janeiro,  while 

1 


2  TKOPICAL   AMERICA 

the  loser  was  to  present  the  case  to  the  editor  and 
obtain  leave  of  absence  and  an  adequate  letter  of  credit. 
The  penny  came  to  me.  The  loser  was  as  good  as  his 
word  in  arranging  the  details,  but  serious  argument  was 
not  required ;  for  without  our  knowledge  the  editor  had 
already  decided  to  send  a  correspondent  and  had  ascer- 
tained that  a  steamer  was  to  sail  for  Brazil  on  the  20th. 
The  lucky  penny  removed  a  generous  competitor  and 
enabled  me  to  spend  ninfi  months  in  Tropical  America. 
The  commission  was  enlarged  so  as  to  include  a  journey 
over  the  Andes  from  the  Plate  and  a  voyage  along  the 
west  coast  to  Peru  and  Ecuador,  and  thence  by  the 
Isthmus  to  Caracas ;  and  another  winter  found  me 
again  in  the  West  Indies  on  the  way  to  Mexico  and 
Central  America. 

Worse  fortune  can  befall  a  traveller  than  to  start  on 
a  circuit  of  Tropical  America  without  a  longer  warning 
than  forty-eight  hours.  Panic-mongers  will  not  have 
time  to  alarm  him  with  forecasts  of  pestilence  and 
imprisonment  in  quarantine.  He  will  not  study  routes, 
nor  make  elaborate  plans,  but  will  be  content  to  drift 
with  the  languid  courses  of  travel  in  Manana  lands 
where  Yankee  energy  is  only  weariness  to  the  flesh. 
He  will  set  out  with  a  light  equipment  and  not  have 
leisure  for  collecting  a  travelling  library.  Nine  months 
in  Tropical  America  have  convinced  me  that  my  great- 
est stroke  of  luck,  after  the  turn  of  the  penny,  was  the 
short  notice  for  the  journey.  I  started  without  useless 
baggage,  and  being  dependent  wholly  upon  my  own 
observations  was  under  no  obligation  to  verify  the  im- 
pressions of  book-writers.  Foreign  countries  and  races 
were  my  only  books,  and  I  had  at  least  an  American 
pair  of  eyes  with  which  to  read  them.     In  order   to 


A   VOYAGE   TO   RIO  8 

derive  the  largest  benefit  from  such  a  journey  one  must 
leave  behind  him  prejudices  and  theories,  and  be  pre- 
pared to  see  things  as  they  are,  without  seeking  to 
adjust  new  facts  to  preconceived  notions,  nor  to  assimi- 
late the  opinions  of  old-time  travellers.  Every  nation 
has  characteristic  traits  and  institutions,  and  the  highest 
value  of  travel  consists  in  the  perception  of  their  signif- 
icance. Every  race  has  elements  of  genius  in  its  civili- 
zation and  there  is  something  in  its  experience  which 
can  be  made  helpful  to  nations  differing  from  it  in  creed 
or  in  breed.  If  one  wishes  not  only  to  increase  his 
stock  of  facts,  but  also  to  learn  their  real  meaning,  he 
must  not  be  encumbered,  when  he  travels,  with  theories, 
his  own  or  other  men's.  Otherwise  he  cannot  become 
a  free  conduit  for  communicating  the  freshest  intelli- 
gence and  the  best  influences  of  other  countries  to  his 
own.  If  he  begins  by  taking  Dr.  Johnson's  advice  and 
divesting  his  mind  of  cant,  he  will  be  a  more  tolerant 
critic  of  men,  institutions,  and  alien  forms  of  civili- 
zation. 

The  steamer  Advance,  after  leaving  New  York,  ran 
into  Newport  News  to  coal  for  the  long  voyage  and  to 
receive  its  full  complement  of  passengers.  There  were 
twenty  refugees  from  a  northern  winter  taking  passage 
for  Barbadoes  ;  there  was  a  group  of  Brazilians  bound 
for  Rio  de  Janeiro,  one  of  them  an  ardent  Republican ; 
there  was  an  American  dentist  with  a  drove  of  Ken- 
tucky horses  consigned  to  the  Argentine ;  there  was  an 
agent  of  an  electric  plant  company,  planning  an  ex- 
tended business  tour  in  tl^e  Plate  countries  and  in 
Brazil ;  there  were  two  American  families  fidgeting  a 
month  in  advance  over  the  possibilities  of  quarantine  at 
Montevideo ;  there  was  an  ardent  young  Spaniard  from 


4  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

La  Plata,  doomed  to  fall  desperately  in  love  with  the 
prettiest  of  the  American  girls  booked  for  the  Wind- 
ward Islands  ;  and  there  was  a  large  company  of  Pres- 
byterian missionaries,  including  the  moderator  of  the 
Brazilian  Synod,  several  young  ministers,  with  Portu- 
guese to  cram  on  the  voyage,  and  two  charming  and 
intelligent  ladies,  teachers  in  the  Protestant  schools  of 
Sao  Paulo.  A  long  cruise  was  before  us,  and  the  re- 
sources of  a  shipload  of  passengers  gave  promise  of 
varied  entertainment  and  relief  from  weariness  of  the 
sea. 

"  Too  many  Jonahs  !  "  was  an  exclamation  frequently 
heard  on  the  ship  during  the  next  month  of  constant 
detention  and  laborious  progress.  At  the  outset  arose 
an  unexpected  complication,  for  which  the  presence  of 
so  large  a  missionary  force  could  not  be  held  account- 
able even  by  the  most  superstitious  sailor.  A  few  hours 
before  the  steamer  was  to  sail  the  sharp  report  of  a 
pistol-shot  was  heard  between  decks  with  sounds  of 
scuffling  and  scurrying  and  angry  cries  of  "  Murder ! " 
and  "  Arrest  him  !  "  One  of  the  assistant  engineers  had 
fired  upon  the  chief  cook,  but  happily  without  effect. 
The  steward  and  his  force  demanded  the  immediate  dis- 
charge of  the  assailant,  but  the  chief  engineer  pleaded 
with  the  captain  for  his  retention  and  was  allowed  to 
have  his  way.  While  this  parley  was  proceeding,  the 
firemen  took  counsel  together  and  concluded  that  it 
would  be  dangerous  for  them  to  work  under  the  super- 
vision of  an  intemperate  and  passionate  officer.  They 
went  to  their  bunks,  packed  their  kits  and  marched  in 
single  file  down  the  gangway-plank,  deserting  the  ship. 
While  negotiations  were  pending  for  securing  their 
return  to  duty  the  assistant   engineer  made  a  second 


A  VOYAGE   TO   KIO  5 

assault  upon  one  of  the  steward's  men.  The  cooks  and 
cabin-boys  at  once  revolted,  and  there  was  a  menace  of 
a  second  series  of  desertions  from  the  steward's  depart- 
ment. The  captain  forestalled  a  mutiny  in  cabin  and 
scullery  by  discharging  the  turbulent  engineer.  A  raw 
force  of  untrained  coal-heavers  was  hired,  and  late  in 
the  evening  the  ship  cast  off  from  the  wharf  and  headed 
for  the  open  sea.  A  Jonah  on  land  was  without  reproach 
among  the  marines;  but  when  the  voyage  was  fairly 
begun  the  poor  missionaries  were  chaffed  unmercifully, 
and  threatened  with  immersion  in  the  sea  whenever 
currents  were  adverse,  or  the  machinery  was  out  of 
gear,  or  the  ship  ran  aground  on  a  sand-bar  or  caught 
the  ebb  of  the  tide  in  entering  port. 

The  run  to  St.  Thomas  was  made  in  six  days  through 
waters  of  luminous  blue  steadily  deepening  in  tone  and 
under  a  sky  in  which  white  clouds  were  constantly 
quickening  their  flight  on  the  wings  of  the  trade  winds. 
After  the  Gulf  Stream  was  crossed  a  lonely  reach  of  the 
sea  was  entered  where  there  were  no  birds  in  the  air  and 
where  the  sun-baths  of  porpoises  and  the  pantomime  of 
flying-fish  ceased.  Dr.  Lane,  who  had  a  talent  for  coin- 
ing striking  expressions,  described  it  as  one  of  the  deserts 
of  the  ocean.  A  very  bright  and  genial  companion  was 
this  Presbyterian  missionary.  For  twenty  years  he  had 
been  in  Brazil  preaching  in  mission  chapels  and  on  street 
corners,  printing  Protestant  tracts  and  organizing  large 
and  successful  schools.  A  keen  controversialist,  he  had 
a  rich  vein  of  Irish  humor.  I  do  not  know  how  success- 
ful he  was  in  translating  his  jokes  into  Portuguese,  but 
the  merry  twinkle  in  his  eyes  must  have  informed  his 
Protestant  converts  that  the  solemn  earnestness  of  the 
missionary  was  overlaid  with  genial  pleasantry. 


6  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

St.  Thomas  has  one  of  the  most  picturesque  harbors 
to  be  entered  in  the  West  Indies.  At  daybreak  we  drew 
near  the  high  cliffs  at  the  entrance  and  caught  an  entranc- 
ing glimpse  of  the  town  built  on  three  hillsides  with  a 
background  of  mountains  and  here  and  there  a  miniature 
castle  of  the  days  of  the  buccaneers.  The  whitewashed 
walls  of  the  shops  and  houses  surmounted  with  red-tiled 
roofs  were  relieved  by  the  green  slopes  of  the  hills  with 
their  rocky  and  barren  crests.  As  it  is  approached  from 
the  harbor  light  St.  Thomas  is  a  silhouette  of  singular 
beauty;  but  like  nearly  all  West  Indian  towns  it  has 
the  self-conscious  air  of  having  seen  better  days  and  of 
suffering  from  the  decline  of  trade.  The  firing  of  the 
steamer's  gun  brought  a  swarm  of  negroes  in  small  boats 
from  the  shore,  and  the  familiar  cries  and  antics  of  divers 
in  search  of  pennies  were  speedily  repeated  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  passengers.  A  young  German  from  Zanzibar 
accompanied  me  to  a  great  barrack  of  a  hotel,  where  we 
had  a  genuine  West  Indian  breakfast  before  starting  out 
to  make  a  round  of  calls  on  the  consuls  and  to  see  the 
governor's  residence,  the  shops,  and  the  sights  of  the 
town.  At  every  turn  we  met  fellow-passengers  enjoy- 
ing heartily  the  pleasure  of  a  day  on  shore  after  a  week 
at  sea. 

What  interested  me  most  in  St.  Thomas  was  the 
harbor.  It  is  capacious,  fairly  deep,  and  completely 
land-locked,  except  at  the  narrow  entrance.  As  a  naval 
station  for  the  United  States  it  would  be  markedly 
superior  to  either  Samana  Bay  or  Mole  San  Nicolas  in 
the  island  of  San  Domingo.  Those  harbors  are  entered 
with  difficulty,  and  are  incapable  of  impregnable  de- 
fence. St.  Thomas,  with  its  circular  basin,  commanded 
by  abrupt  hillsides,  and  with  its  lofty  headlands  guard- 


A    VOYAGE   TO   RIO  7 

insr  the  entrance,  could  be  converted  into  another  Malta. 
It  is  not  strange  that  Secretary  Seward,  when  he  visited 
the  island,  while  recovering  from  the  wounds  of  an  as- 
sassin's knife,  Avas  greatly  impressed  with  the  advan- 
tages of  the  harbor.  In  view  of  recent  negotiations  for 
the  acquisition  of  inferior  coaling-stations  in  an  island 
rent  with  civil  war,  where  the  United  States  govern- 
ment would  be  compelled  to  intervene  constantly  in 
political  affairs,  it  is  most  unfortunate  that  his  sagacious 
scheme  was  never  carried  out.  President  Lincoln  favored 
the  project  toward  the  close  of  his  first  administration, 
because  the  inhospitality  of  British  ports  to  Union  cruis- 
ers and  the  enforcement  of  the  twenty-four-hours'  rule 
against  them  were  a  source  of  embarrassment  in  naval 
operations.  If  a  coaling-station  was  urgently  needed 
then  for  the  avoidance  of  the  restrictions  of  neutral 
ports,  it  will  be  required  in  any  future  war  in  which 
the  United  States  may  engage.  St.  Thomas,  by  virtue 
of  its  central  position  among  the  European  possessions 
in  America,  and  its  strategic  relations  with  the  Isthmus 
and  Nicaragua  Canal  routes,  and  the  courses  of  trade 
with  Brazil,  would  be  an  ideal  coaling-station.  The 
island  is  worth  intrinsically  less  than  it  was  when  Sec- 
retary Seward  visited  it.  Its  commercial  importance  has 
declined  since  the  Royal  Mail  steamers  made  Barba- 
does  the  centre  of  trade  and  mail  communications  in  the 
Lesser  Antilles.  The  island  itself,  like  St.  John,  is 
unproductive,  but  Santa  Cruz  has  a  well-organized  sugar 
industry  capable  of  profitable  development.  There  was 
a  transitory  revival  of  the  fortunes  of  St.  Thomas  dur- 
ing the  American  Civil  War,  but  the  Danes  were  willing 
to  sell  the  island  to  Secretary  Seward,  and  would  prob- 
ably take  less  for  it  now  than  they  asked  for  it  then. 


8  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

The  Swedes  relinquished  St.  Bartholomew  to  the  French 
in  1878.  The  Dutch  would  not  stand  upon  the  price 
if  there  were  a  purchaser  bargaining  for  St.  Eustatius 
and  Saba. 

From  St.  Thomas  the  course  of  the  Advance  lay- 
nearly  southeast  to  Martinique.  Beginning  with  the 
swarm  of  the  Virgin  Islands,  where  the  lovely  legend 
of  Ursula  and  her  legion  of  attendants  is  brought  to 
mind,  the  traveller  in  the  Lesser  Antilles  repeats  a 
litany  to  the  saints  as  he  sails.  The  Spanish  system 
of  nomenclature  was  simple.  When  islands  were  dis- 
covered in  the  early  voyages,  the  calendar  was  piously 
consulted,  and  the  names  were  taken  from  the  saints' 
days.  The  Spanish  navigators  were  satisfied  with  nam- 
ing these  beautiful  islands.  With  the  exception  of 
Trinidad,  they  made  no  attempt  to  colonize  them.  For 
a  century  after  the  voyages  of  Columbus  the  four  large 
islands  of  the  West  Indian  archipelago  were  tenanted 
by  gold-hunters  and  adventurers  from  Spain,  but  the 
crescent  of  gray  pearls  and  dazzling  emeralds  from 
Porto  Rico  to  the  Orinoco  was  allowed  to  lie  neglected 
and  despised  in  the  lap  of  the  Caribbean.  Another 
century  passed,  and  the  fleets  of  maritime  Europe  were 
battling  for  them  in  four  great  wars  as  the  most  pre- 
cious jewels  of  the  French,  English,  and  Spanish  crowns. 
A  hundred  years  of  peace  have  followed  a  hundred  years 
of  war,  and  the  Lesser  Antilles  to-day  are  virtually 
abandoned  to  hives  of  blacks.  Islands  of  enchanting 
loveliness,  rising  out  of  the  bluest  of  seas,  and  floating 
like  a  mirage  of  fairyland  in  the  golden  vistas  of  the 
tropics,  how  unconscious  they  seem  of  the  strange  muta- 
tions and  sharp  contrasts  of  their  fortunes  I  Whether 
they  have  been   highly   prized   or   neglected,  nature's 


A  VOYAGE  TO   RIO  9 

dower  of  beauty  has  been  always  fresh,  radiant  in  the 
lights,  and  undimmed  by  the  shadows,  of  West  Indian 
history. 

The  Virgin  Islands,  with  the  exception  of  St.  Thomas 
and  Santa  Cruz,  are  low-lying  reefs  in  an  arid  belt  where 
there  is  a  slight  rainfall.  With  St.  Kitt's  begins  the 
procession  of  highland  islands,  with  blue  peaks  hooded 
by  clouds  and  well-watered  slopes  on  which  sugarcane 
is  cultivated  to  the  ribbon  of  white  beach  at  the  water's 
edge.  Then  follow  the  gray  cone  of  Nevis ;  the  level 
meadows  of  Antigua,  with  St.  John's,  the  capital,  em- 
bowered in  pineapple  groves  and  sugar  plantations; 
Montserrat,  with  its  stately  mountains ;  Guadeloupe, 
with  its  rugged  coast,  its  lofty  volcano,  and  its  quaint 
French  town,  Pointe-a-Pitre  ;  Dominica,  with  a  grandeur 
of  scenery  unrivalled  in  the  West  Indies  ;  and  Marti- 
nique at  the  end  of  the  Leeward  group,  with  the  Wind- 
ward Islands,  St.  Lucia,  St.  Vincent,  the  Grenadines, 
and  Grenada  to  the  south,  and  Barbadoes  to  the  east  on 
the  outer  rim  of  the  archipelago.  Among  these  islands 
St.  Kitt's  was  the  common  centre  of  English  and  French 
colonization,  the  two  rivals  beginning  their  career  of 
maritime  emulation  and  naval  conflict  by  settling  side 
by  side.  Thence  the  French  passed  rapidly  to  Guade- 
loupe, Dominica,  Martinique,  and  the  Windward  Islands, 
while  the  English  occupied  Barbadoes,  Nevis,  Antigua, 
Montserrat,  Anguilla,  Barbuda,  and  the  Bahamas. 
Cromwell's  raid  upon  Jamaica  opened  a  new  base  for 
English  colonization  just  as  the  occupation  of  Hayti 
enlarged  the  field  of  French  enterprise.  During  the 
wars  of  the  Spanish  Succession  and  of  Pitt  and  Napo- 
leon the  principal  islands  were  taken  and  recaptured 
many  times.     Dominica,  St.  Vincent,  and  Grenada  fell 


10  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

to  England  after  the  conquest  of  Canada  ;  all  the  islands 
except  Barbadoes  and  St.  Lucia  were  regained  by  France 
after  Yorktown ;  Rodney's  genius  restored  the  West 
Indian  Empire  to  England  in  the  sea-fight  between 
Dominica  and  Guadeloupe ;  Trinidad  was  wrested  from 
Spain  in  1797,  and  St.  Lucia,  Tobago,  and  British 
Guiana  from  France  and  her  forced  allies  in  1803. 

The  Spanish  navigators  were  strictly  logical  in  their 
classification  of  the  West  Indies  according  to  exposure 
to  the  prevailing  trade  wind.  The  entire  group  of  the 
Lesser  Antilles,  from  St.  Thomas  to  Trinidad,  was 
known  in  their  records  of  discovery  as  the  Windward 
Islands,  while  the  four  largest  Antilles,  Cuba,  San 
Domingo,  Jamaica,  and  Porto  Rico,  were  named  the 
Leeward  Islands.  The  present  classification  is  artificial, 
having  been  ordered  for  administrative  purposes.  The 
Leeward  is  the  northerly  group  stretching  from  the 
Virgin  Islands  to  Dominica.  The  three  islands  of  St. 
Lucia,  St.  Vincent,  and  Grenada,  with  the  tiny  Grena- 
dines, are  officially  known  as  the  Windward  group. 
Barbadoes,  which  lies  most  to  the  windward,  is  excluded 
from  the  second  group  because  it  has  a  governor  of  its 
own  and  is  entirely  distinct  in  its  administrative  system. 
Tobago,  being  united  with  Trinidad  in  colonial  govern- 
ment, is  also  separated  from  its  windward  neighbors. 
The  largest  town  is  St.  John's,  Antigua,  the  seat  of 
government  of  the  Leeward  group.  The  best  harbor  is 
Castries  Bay  in  St.  Lucia,  which  the  British  govern- 
ment has  strongly  fortified  and  converted  into  a  naval 
and  military  station.  The  administrative  systems  of  the 
two  groups  are  similar,  and  each  colonial  governor  has 
the  despairing  task  of  controlling  a  horde  of  ignorant 
blacks  with  the  support  of  a  few  hundreds  of  whites. 


A   VOYAGE   TO   RIO  11 

Poor  gray  islands  that  have  witnessed  centuries  of  war- 
fare, how  has  their  lustre  been  tarnished  in  the  sight  of 
Europe  !  No  longer  precious  jewels  of  a  foreign  crown, 
they  are  now  black  pearls  of  the  same  water  as  Hayti. 

In  marked  contrast  with  the  decadence  of  Dominica 
are  the  French  islands,  Guadeloupe  and  Martinique. 
The  first  is  superior  to  the  other  two  in  natural  re- 
sources, but  under  British  rule  nothing  has  been  made 
of  it.  There  is  only  a  handful  of  whites  in  Dominica 
among  a  degraded  swarm  of  blacks.  Roseau  is  one  of 
the  most  forlorn  of  West  Indian  towns,  utterly  without 
promise  of  industrial  revival.  The  French  islands  are 
not  only  more  densely  populated  than  Dominica,  but 
their  industries  are  diversified ;  sugar-planting  is  eco- 
nomically managed,  commerce  is  not  declining,  and  the 
best  Creole  race  to  be  found  in  the  West  Indies  is  con- 
tented and  loyal  to  the  mother  country.  Guadeloupe 
and  Martinique  are  represented  in  the  French  Assembly 
and  have  all  the  privileges  of  responsible  home  rule. 
France  has  protected  their  interests  at  high  cost  to  its 
own  treasury.  It  has  opened  its  markets  to  their  prod- 
uce, promoted  their  industries  by  bounties,  and  con- 
tinued to  this  day  to  take  nearly  all  they  have  to  export. 
They  have  not  been  cast  off  by  an  unnatural  mother, 
but  have  been  cherished  as  the  only  remaining  children 
of  a  colonial  family  once  large  and  powerful. 

No  traveller  can  visit  Martinique  without  being  im- 
pressed with  a  conviction  that  Rodney's  splendid  sea- 
fight,  by  which  Dominica  and  other  islands  were  wrested 
from  the  French,  was  a  grave  misfortune  to  the  Lesser 
Antilles.  If  the  islands,  which  were  settled  by  the 
French,  had  not  been  regained  by  England,  there  would 
have  been  a  larger  measure  of  prosperity  to-day  in  the 


12  TKOPICAL   AIMERICA 

Leeward  and  Windward  groups.  No  scenic  picture  in 
Tropical  America  is  more  beautiful  than  the  quaint  town 
of  St.  Pierre  with  Mt.  Pel^e  behind  it.  The  French 
settlers  who  founded  the  city  were  good  Catholics  and 
respected  the  memory  of  their  patron  saint  when  they 
laid  its  foundations  on  solid  rock  at  the  edge  of  a  semi- 
circular bay.  The  houses  are  built  of  stone,  and,  while 
small  and  unpretentious,  have  an  aspect  of  massiveness. 
A  cathedral  with  two  white  towers  is  in  the  centre,  and 
artistically  grouped  around  it  are  houses  and  shops  with 
red  tiled  roofs  and  gabled  dormers.  It  is  a  French  city 
with  all  the  characteristics  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
but  it  has  not  been  allowed  to  fall  into  ruin  or  to  lose 
its  air  of  antique  refinement.  The  prevailing  colors  in 
the  house-fronts  are  yellow  and  gray,  with  blue  or  green 
in  the  window  shutters,  and  there  is  something  in  the 
rambling  disorder  of  the  crooked  and  steep  lanes  that 
bespeaks  an  artistic  strain  in  the  Creole  blood.  The 
stone  pavements  are  scrupulously  clean ;  the  flights  of 
steps  leading  upward  from  the  landing-pier  open  into 
miniature  rues  filled  with  a  gaily  dressed  and  pleasure- 
loving  populace  ;  the  market  is  one  of  the  best  in  the 
West  Indies  ;  palms  wave  their  long  plumes  in  numer- 
ous little  squares  and  breathing-nooks  ;  there  are  water- 
courses tumbling  down  the  hillside  and  cooling  the 
heated  air,  and  fountains  are  seen  unexpectedly  in  the 
sharp  turns  of  the  streets.  St.  Pierre  has  no  statue  of 
Josephine  encircled  by  palms,  like  its  rival.  Fort  de 
France,  but  it  is  more  picturesque,  prosperous,  and  ener- 
getic. The  stone  foundations  of  Fort  de  France  have 
been  shattered  by  earthquake  shocks,  and  the  town  has 
been  rebuilt  with  frame  houses  at  the  sacrifice  of  quaint 
characteristics.     The  memory  of  the  lovely  Creole,  who 


A  VOYAGE  TO   RIO  13 

became  the  wife  and  empress  of  the  world's  greatest 
soldier  does  not  suffice  to  compensate  for  an  inferior 
scenic  setting  and  for  signs  of  decadence.  St.  Pierre 
is  the  most  interesting  town  of  the  West  Indies.  Amer- 
icans have  not  yet  discovered  it,  but  when  they  do  they 
will  convert  it  into  a  Riviera  more  alluring  than  Nassau 
or  Barbadoes. 

From  Martinique  the  Advance  ran  to  windward  a 
night  and  a  day,  outside  the  circle  of  the  highland 
islands,  until  Barbadoes  was  reached  on  a  lovely  Sunday 
forenoon.  Barbadoes  is,  after  St.  Kitt's,  the  oldest  of 
the  British  settlements  in  the  West  Indies,  and  every 
available  acre  of  its  limited  area  has  been  for  genera- 
tions under  thorough  cultivation.  The  white  descend- 
ants of  the  Cavaliers  and  Roundheads  of  the  early 
colonial  period  have  not  abandoned  their  homes  and 
plantations,  but  remain  in  about  the  same  number  as  in 
1800.  Relatively  their  strength  has  been  reduced ;  for 
while  there  were  then  15,000  whites  to  60,000  blacks, 
there  are  now  16,000  \vhites  to  164,000  blacks.  This 
makes  the  island  one  of  the  most  densely  populated 
districts  of  Tropical  America,  the  average  being  1084 
to  the  square  mile.  Smaller  than  either  Dominica  or 
St.  Lucia,  it  has  an  area  of  166  square  miles,  yet  with 
its  population  of  180,000,  it  rivals  the  companion  col- 
ony of  Trinidad  and  Tobago,  with  an  area  of  1869 
square  miles. 

The  two  English  colonies  differ  markedly  in  their 
history,  one  having  been  continuously  English  in  its 
traditions,  while  the  other  was  one  of  the  last  con- 
quests from  Spain  in  the  West  Indies.  Barbadoes  was 
a  well-cultivated  garden  when  Trinidad,  of  which 
nothing   had   been   made    under   Spanish   rule,  passed 


14  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

under  British  rule,  to  be  converted,  by  the  development 
of  its  resources,  into  the  most  prosperous  of  the  Lesser 
Antilles.  The  smaller  island  had  its  single  industry, 
cane  sugar,  but  when  every  acre  was  planted  and  en- 
riched with  fertilizers  the  limit  of  its  productiveness 
was  reached.  Beyond  increasing  by  improved  machin- 
ery the  percentage  of  sugar  to  be  squeezed  from  the 
cane,  it  could  do  nothing  to  improve  its  fortunes.  With 
a  population  already  so  dense  that  there  was  hardly 
ground  to  spare  for  raising  yams  to  keep  the  negroes 
alive,  there  was  no  chance  for  securing  a  superior  class 
of  labor  from  the  East  Indies.  Trinidad,  like  British 
Guiana,  could  increase  its  population  one-third  by  im- 
porting coolies,  and  could  vary  its  industries  by  culti- 
vating cacao  and  fruit  as  well  as  sugar,  and  by  exporting 
asphalt  from  its  famous  lake.  It  was  an  undeveloped 
island,  and  its  governors  could  report  material  gains  in 
prosperity  from  year  to  year.  As  for  Barbadoes,  it  had 
nothing  to  hope  for  except  increased  commercial  pres- 
tige as  the  main  shipping  and  distributing  point  of  the 
Lesser  Antilles,  and  enlarged  patronage  as  a  winter 
resort. 

Bridgetown  is  now  a  bustling  town  with  a  popu- 
lation of  25,000,  and  a  British  garrison  at  St.  Ann's 
Castle  on  the  southern  edge  of  Carlisle  Bay.  A  rail- 
way line,  twenty-four  miles  in  length,  runs  across  the 
island,  and  there  are  fine  roads  in  all  the  parishes. 
All  the  characteristics  of  the  town  are  markedly  Eng- 
lish, from  the  statue  of  Nelson  in  a  mimic  Trafalgar 
Square  to  the  cathedral  in  the  most  densely  populated 
quarter.  The  whites  stand  in  no  apprehension  of  being 
ruled  by  the  blacks,  for  while  largely  outnumbered  they 
are  strong  enough  to  maintain  resolutely  their  ascend- 


A  VOYAGE  TO   RIO  16 

ency.  The  governor  has  the  support  of  a  body  of  white 
colonists  almost  fanatical  in  their  loyalty  to  England  ; 
but  the  island  is  a  commercial  dependency  of  the  United 
States.  Its  food  supplies  are  derived  almost  wholly 
from  the  only  market  where  its  surplus  sugar  can  be 
sold. 

The  Advance  got  off  at  midnight  and  continued  her 
course  to  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon.  It  was  a  six  days' 
run  before  the  yellow  shoals  of  the  delta  were  descried. 
Among  accumulations  of  sand,  drift,  and  slime,  which  an 
equatorial  sun  clothes  with  rank  verdure,  the  Amazon 
squanders  resources  borrowed  from  a  hundred  tributa- 
ries ;  but  so  vast  are  its  reserves  of  power,  that  it  pre- 
serves its  identity  for  leagues  seaward,  and  forms  currents 
which  are  felt  fifty  or  a  hundred  miles  from  the  delta. 
Other  rivers  are  instantly  swallowed  up  by  the  sea  ;  but 
the  Amazon  continues  its  triumphant  course,  a  river  in 
the  ocean.  As  the  missionaries  had  been  held  respon- 
sible by  the  jovial  captain  for  a  partial  paralysis  of  the 
machinery,  for  the  unusual  resistance  of  the  ocean  cur- 
rents, and  for  the  quarantine  at  Barbadoes,  so  they 
were  also  reproached  for  a  final  mishap  at  the  mouth  of 
the  river.  The  Indian  pilot,  misjudging  the  depth  of 
water,  ran  the  ship  aground  on  one  of  the  shifting  bars, 
and  for  hours  there  was  a  desperate  struggle  to  get  her 
off.  The  captain's  facetious  proposal  to  lighten  the  ship 
by  discharging  the  cargo  of  Jonahs  was  received  good- 
humoredly  by  the  long-suffering  missionaries.  As  their 
attention  had  been  called  on  the  previous  day  to  a  school 
of  whales  spouting  near  the  equator,  their  minds  might 
well  have  been  filled  with  foreboding  of  their  fate,  if 
any  further  accident  were  to  befall  the  belated  Advance. 
Accident  there  was  none,  but  there  was  serious  detention 


16  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

at  each  of  the  ports  off  which  the  ship  anchored  before 
its  arrival  at  the  Brazilian  capital.  As  the  passengers 
in  each  instance  had  a  full  day  ashore,  they  had  no  cause 
for  complaint.  They  had  leisure  for  exploring  four  char- 
acteristic coast  towns,  —  Par4,  lying  at  the  gateway  of  the 
most  wonderful  river  system  of  the  world,  with  an  equa- 
torial empire  behind  it  where  nature  seems  to  conquer 
man;  Maranhao,  with  moss-grown  streets  and  declining 
commerce,  shrinking  from  sight  in  the  reaches  of  an 
inaccessible  lagoon  ;  Pernambuco,  with  its  natural  break- 
water, a  Brazilian  Venice  encircled  by  harbor  and  sea, 
and  pierced  by  narrow  rivers ;  and  Bahia,  built  like 
Quebec  on  high  bluffs,  with  a  lower  town  cluttered  in  a 
jumble  of  disorder  along  the  water's  edge. 

Each  Brazilian  coast  city  seems  to  have  its  character- 
istic colors.  Par4  is  what  artistic  decorators  would 
describe  as  a  symphony  in  green ;  Maranhao  is  an  old 
bit  of  washed-out  blue  ;  Pernambuco  affects  a  cheap  and 
spongy  alabaster  in  its  gray  and  white ;  and  Bahia  is 
a  study  of  buff  and  brown.  If  the  architects  sought  to 
set  the  prevailing  tone  of  color  in  these  towns  when 
they  fashioned  their  sombre-hued  temples  and  monas- 
teries, they  have  been  baffled  by  the  love  of  vivid  color- 
ing inherent  in  the  Portuguese  blood.  It  may  be  that 
the  primal  hints  for  intensity  in  decorative  effects  have 
been  received  from  nature.  Nowhere  is  the  ocean  of  so 
pronounced  a  blue  as  in  tropical  Brazil.  Under  no  con- 
ditions of  light  or  cloud  is  there  the  faintest  touch  of 
the  North  Atlantic  green.  It  is  literally  the  matchless 
dark  blue  sea  of  which  poets  have  sung.  Over  it  arches 
the  dome  of  the  tropical  sky,  frescoed  in  tones  of  lumi- 
nous blue,  incomparably  richer  than  the  blue  of  a  northern 
sky.     Against  this  background  of  vivid  blue  stand  out 


A   VOYAGE  TO   RIO  17 

the  intense  green  and  flaming  scarlet  of  tropical  vegeta- 
tion. While  there  are  no  trees  in  the  South  American 
woods  which  can  be  compared  in  form  and  symmetry  Avith 
the  oaks,  elms,  pines,  chestnuts,  walnuts,  and  conifers 
of  a  northern  forest,  the  foliage  has  richer  and  deeper 
tints  in  its  perennial  freshness.  The  mangoes,  with 
their  dark  olive  leaves,  match  the  bright  and  gaudy 
feathers  of  the  palm.  The  mosses  clinging  to  the  cliffs, 
the  tall,  luxuriant  grasses  in  shaded  ravines,  and  the 
rank  parasites  overspreading  with  wanton  growth  the 
woodland  thickets  and  rocky  hillsides,  furnish  varied 
shades  of  green  as  intense  as  the  blue  of  sky  or  ocean. 
In  contrast  with  the  green,  but  even  stronger  in  color, 
are  the  burning  scarlet,  the  royal  purple,  and  the  lumi- 
nous yellow  shining  out  from  parterres  of  flowers  in  the 
gardens.  Trojiical  flowers,  while  less  fragrant  and  hav- 
ing less  delicacy  of  form  than  the  flowers  of  temperate 
climes,  are  more  vivid  in  hue.  Nature  sets  the  example 
of  profusion  of  color  in  Brazil,  and  man  instinctively 
follows  it  in  building  and  decorating  the  towns.  Portu- 
guese tiling  can  be  had  in  all  colors  and  patterns,  and 
bright,  showy  paint  does  not  cost  more  than  the  dull 
and  quiet  shades. 

If  each  coast  town  has  its  characteristic  colors,  so  also 
each  has  its  own  costumes  for  the  swarming  black  popu- 
lation. From  the  equator  to  the  tropic  there  is  a 
process  of  evolution  in  dress.  At  Par4  and  Maranhao 
the  negro  children  are  stark  naked.  At  Pernambuco 
and  Bahia  they  wear  calico  dresses.  At  Par4  the  men 
begin  with  a  pair  of  trunks  without  hat,  shoes,  shirt,  or 
coat;  at  Maranhao  they  have  a  loose-fitting  shirt  flap- 
ping over  the  trousers  ;  at  Pernambuco  a  ragged  coat  is 
slipped  over  the  shirt  and  a  torn  straw  hat  covers  the 


18  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

head ;  and  at  Baliia,  shoes  and  stockings  nearly  complete 
the  costume  of  a  negro  laborer.  The  costumes  of  the 
women  are  developed  in  the  same  progressive  way.  In 
the  beginning  there  is  a  chemise,  or  what  the  ancients 
would  have  called  a  long  tunic,  with  head  and  feet  bare. 
Farther  down  the  coast  a  calico  skirt  and  waist  is  thrown 
over  the  chemise,  and  shoes  are  worn.  At  Bahia  a  light 
wrap  is  carelessly  worn  over  calico  suits  of  the  gayest 
colors  and  patterns,  and  there  is  a  lavish  display  of  cheap 
bracelets,  brass  earrings,  and  amulets.  These  are  the 
costumes  of  the  lowest  classes  of  blacks.  With  educa- 
tion and  social  equality  the  dress  of  the  negroes  and 
mulattoes  changes  until  it  is  hardly  distinguishable 
from  that  of  the  Portuguese.  The  negroes  in  Bahia 
are  superior  to  those  of  the  northern  coast.  The  women 
who  hawk  fish  or  pineapples  in  the  streets  are  marvels 
of  physical  development  and  grace.  They  are  as  straight 
as  palms  and  as  lithe  as  willows,  and  they  walk  like 
Greek  goddesses.  With  purple,  pink,  or  blue  waists  cut 
low  in  the  neck,  they  display  arms  of  the  finest  model- 
ling, and  a  development  of  muscle  and  sinew  and  an 
erect  and  queenly  carriage  which  must  be  the  envy  and 
despair  of  Brazilian  ladies  of  the  highest  rank. 

In  every  town  are  to  be  seen  the  domes  and  crosses 
of  churches,  monasteries,  and  convents.  Many  of  these 
structures  are  empty  and  virtually  closed,  the  laws 
against  monastic  orders  having  been  enforced  during  the 
last  decade  of  the  Empire.  Whenever  I  found  a  church 
open  for  mass  I  watched  a  motley  company  of  kneeling 
worshippers  of  every  shade  of  color  from  a  white-faced 
Portuguese  widow  with  a  lace  handkerchief  wet  with 
tears,  to  an  ebony-black  fisherwoman  counting  her  beads 
under  a  faded  shawl.    Crude  paintings,  coarsely  designed 


A  VOYAGE   TO   RIO  19 

and  ill-dressed  images,  tawdry  gilt  ornamentation  with- 
out lines  of  grace,  were  combined  with  a  general  coldness 
of  architectural  effect.  The  eye  was  repelled  by  the 
shabbiness  and  bareness  of  the  crumbling  churches  and 
attracted  by  the  spacious  Portuguese  mansions  with  their 
gardens  aflame  with  scarlet  and  crimson  flowers.  More 
interesting  than  the  churches  and  residences  were  the 
markets  and  bird-bazaars.  A  market  is  ordinarily  to  be 
regarded  as  the  pulse  of  the  town.  If  it  be  well  served, 
clean,  and  orderly,  the  blood  circulation  of  the  com- 
munity may  safely  be  considered  as  excellent.  Judged 
by  this  test,  there  are  few  towns  in  Brazil  in  which  there 
is  sound  digestion.  The  markets  are  dirty,  disorderly, 
and  unattractive.  There  are  scanty  displays  of  meats, 
since  the  mass  of  the  population  live  on  jerked  beef  from 
the  Plate  countries.  Of  fish  there  is  a  larger  assortment, 
but  vegetables  are  lacking.  In  Bahia  the  oranges  are 
large  and  delicious,  and  mangoes  and  bananas  are  abun- 
dant and  cheap.  The  pineapples  are  mellow,  overrun- 
ning with  juice  and  of  incomparable  flavor. 

After  a  voyage  of  thirty-two  days  from  New  York  the 
most  barren  ledge  of  weather-beaten  rock  would  have 
attractions  for  eyes  weary  of  the  wondrous  blue  splen- 
dors of  the  tropical  seas.  The  Bay  of  January  with  its 
incomparable  beauties  inspired  under  these  conditions 
the  liveliest  feelings  of  admiration  and  enthusiasm  when 
the  Advance  entered  it  after  a  quick  run  from  Bahia. 
Some  of  my  fellow-travellers  were  disposed  to  be  critical 
and  to  discriminate  against  Rio  de  Janeiro  in  favor 
of  Naples  and  Sydney  in  the  South  Seas ;  but  in  my 
intense  delight  at  being  relieved  from  the  tedium  of  a 
protracted  voyage,  during  which  every  passenger  except 
Dr.  Lane  had  talked  himself  out,  I  was  willing  when 


20  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

the  ship  cast  anchor  off  the  city  to  concede  everything 
which  the  most  fervid  Brazilian  would  claim  for  that 
unrivalled  harbor.  All  the  day  the  coast  scenery  had 
been  preparing  me  for  the  grandeur  of  the  bay  encom- 
passed with  its  glorious  mountains.  At  breakfast  Cape 
Frio  was  in  sight  thirty  miles  away.  Slowly  it  loomed 
up  before  the  eyes,  a  majestic  mountain  of  rock  with  its 
ragged  crest  1286  feet  above  the  sea.  Behind  it  there 
was  a  stately  procession  of  mountains  forming  a  con- 
tinuous line  of  sentries  along  the  coast.  For  sixty  miles 
from  the  cape  these  rock-bound  giants  exchanged  their 
signals  in  guarding  the  entrance  to  Rio  de  Janeiro. 
Then  the  Sugar  Loaf  rising  1200  feet  abruptly  from  the 
sea  closed  the  outward  file  and  opened  the  grand  encamp- 
ment of  the  Rio  mountains.  A  companion  promontory 
guarded  the  entrance  to  a  bay  eighty  miles  in  circuit 
where  all  the  navies  of  the  world  might  find  safe  anchor- 
age. The  bay  was  encompassed  with  mountains  on 
every  side.  On  the  left  were  Corcovado,  the  Gavea,  and 
Tijuca,  with  the  Organ  range  in  the  distance.  On  the 
right  was  an  amphitheatre  of  hills,  ranging  toward  the 
Serro  do  Mar.  Imagination  creates  grotesque  pictures 
and  resemblances  in  these  granite  peaks  and  overlapping 
ranges.  One  generation  amuses  itself  with  outlining 
Lord  Hood's  nose  in  the  Gavea  and  Tijuca,  while 
another  sees  a  sleeping  giant  reclining  on  his  mountain 
bed.  The  bay  with  its  towering  mountain  walls  remains 
for  all  time  a  vision  of  enchanting  beauty.  Its  surface 
is  gemmed  with  emerald  islands  and  fortifications  shin- 
ing in  the  moonlight  like  murky  pearls ;  and  where  the 
city  sits  enthroned  among  its  hills  and  ravines  the  white 
clouds  reflect  at  night  a  radiant  lustre  enkindled  by  its 
myriad  lights. 


A   VOYAGE   TO   RIO  21 

The  Brazilian  capital  will  always  be  embarrassed  by 
the  riches  of  its  natural  advantages.  How  beautiful  and 
picturesque  it  needs  to  be  in  order  to  be  worthy  of  the 
companionship  of  those  majestic  mountains  and  those 
tranquil  waters !  If  it  be  inferior  in  loveliness  to  its 
harbor  and  the  amphitheatre  of  granite  peaks  and  ver- 
dant hillsides,  it  is  still  unique  and  unrivalled  among 
South  American  cities.  Half-hidden  among  its  hills,  it 
reveals  itself  with  coy  modesty  to  unaccustomed  eyes. 
It  is  a  city  of  magnificent  prospects  and  constant  sur- 
prises. Sharply  graded  streets  boldly  scale  the  hillsides 
or  cautiously  curve  around  the  bases  and  lead  to  con- 
cealed suburbs.  Castello  and  Antonio  are  the  natural 
buttresses  of  the  business  section  of  the  city ;  but  Thereza, 
Gloria,  and  Larangeiras,  behind  Nova  Cintra,  are  suburbs 
that  have  steadily  grown  until  they  are  now  favorite 
residence  quarters.  The  shore  line  is  dotted  with  ham- 
lets and  cottages.  New  vistas  of  outlying  hills  and  ambi- 
tious suburbs  are  ever  coming  into  view.  Churches, 
convents,  and  monasteries  are  constantly  looming  up  in 
unexpected  places.  The  eye  is  refreshed  with  glim|)ses 
of  lovely  gardens,  for  which  rockbound  hillsides  are  a 
foil ;  and  from  every  eminence  the  bay,  with  its  wonder- 
ful panoramic  effects  of  islands,  fortifications,  and  ship- 
ping, bursts  upon  the  view  with  endless  variety. 

Nature  has  been  too  lavish  in  her  bounty  of  beauty 
for  the  welfare  of  Rio  de  Janeiro.  The  mountains 
which  encircle  it  shut  out  the  invigorating  sea-breezes, 
and  leave  it  in  the  seasons  of  inclement  heat  festering 
with  disease  and  plague-stricken.  Nature  cannot  be 
held  wholly  responsible  for  the  unhealthfulness  of  the 
city.  Human  neglect  has  multiplied  the  evils  of  moun- 
tain shelter.     No  other    great  city  has  been  governed 


22  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

with  less  wisdom  and  prudence  than  Rio  de  Janeiro; 
and  its  population  of  less  than  400,000  is  ravaged  every 
year  by  yellow  fever,  small-pox,  and  heat  fever.  Fortu- 
nately, during  the  winter  of  the  revolution  all  fears  of 
yellow  fever  were  dispelled  by  welcome  rains  in  Decem- 
ber, and  the  death  rate  was  reduced  to  twelve  from  that 
disease  during  the  closing  week  of  the  year.  From  the 
middle  of  January  to  the  end  of  February  the  plague 
is  ordinarily  at  its  height,  but  the  visitation  was  averted 
by  favorable  weather,  and  the  people  were  left  exposed 
only  to  the  fever  of  popular  excitement  caused  by  the 
revolution. 

The  new  Republican  government  paid  three  of  our 
passengers  the  compliment  of  sending  out  a  special 
customs  boat  to  take  them  ashore  when  the  Advaiiee 
arrived.  The  Minister  of  Finance,  Senhor  Barboza, 
welcomed  us  to  the  city  by  messages  of  hospitality  de- 
livered in  high-sounding  Portuguese  b}^  his  brother-in- 
law,  Senhor  Vianna  Bandeira,  and  translated  into  equally 
sonorous  English  by  W.  P.  Tisdel,  of  Washington.  By 
these  courtesies  I  was  saved  a  tedious  hour  in  passing 
the  customs  line,  and  enabled  to  land  at  once.  Mr.  Tis- 
del was  also  the  bearer  of  invitations  from  Mr.  Adams, 
the  American  minister,  whose  hospitality  I  was  to 
enjoy  in  Petropolis,  and  he  had  many  thoughtful  and 
helpful  suggestions  to  make  on  his  own  account.  The 
Advance  lay  near  the  anchorage  ground  of  the  gunboat 
to  which  the  imperial  family  had  been  taken  at  mid- 
night in  the  first  stage  of  their  enforced  exile.  In  a 
short  time  we  were  climbing  the  stairs  of  the  landing- 
pier  where  the  unhappy  monarch  last  trod  on  Brazilian 
soil.  In  another  moment  we  were  passing  the  shabby 
palace  by  the  water's  edge,  and  it  was  not  long  before 


A  VOYAGE   TO   RIO     ^  23 

we  were  gazing  at  the  quartel  and  the  war-offices  where 
the  bloodless  revolution  had  occurred.  All  was  peace- 
ful and  quiet,  albeit  the  memory  of  those  momentous 
events  was  still  burning  in  men's  memories.  In  the 
early  morning  the  city  was  preparing  for  another  day 
of  commercial  activity,  without  regard  for  the  misfor- 
tunes of  dynasties  or  for  the  experiments  of  constitution- 
makers.  The  Ouvidor  was  taking  down  its  shutters 
and  opening  its  doors  for  a  brisk  da}^  of  Christmas 
trade,  with  no  thought  of  the  pangs  of  imperial  exile 
or  of  the  uncertainties  and  perplexities  of  the  political 
morrow.  The  rains  had  come,  and  the  progress  of 
yellow  fever  had  been  stayed.  The  temperature  was 
lower,  and  men  would  not  be  falling  in  the  streets 
before  noon  from  that  terrible  heat  fever  which  resem- 
bles sunstroke.  The  climate  in  the  capital  is  so  serious 
a  matter  as  to  be  uppermost  in  men's  minds.  Political 
revolutions  seem  trivial  beside  the  contingencies  of 
plague.  Yellow  Jack  is  the  Emperor  of  Death,  for 
whose  downfall  and  permanent  exile  Rio  de  Janeiro 
despairingly  hopes. 

As  soon  as  I  had  been  reassured  at  the  American 
consulate  respecting  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  city, 
I  looked  for  a  comfortable  hotel,  and  found  one  near 
the  Passeio  Publico,  a  beautiful  water-side  park,  com- 
manding from  an  elevated  terrace  fine  views  of  the  bay 
and  Sugar  Loaf.  There  I  settled  myself  for  several 
weeks ;  and  since  the  dinners  were  excellent  and  the 
beds  tolerable,  I  was  not  tempted  to  change  ni}-  quar- 
ters. Introductions  and  invitations  followed,  and  I 
soon  had  a  delightful  circle  of  acquaintances,  and  felt 
at  home  in  the  Brazilian  capital.  It  is  a  city  where  one 
can  live  in  comfort  and  even  luxury  for  nine  months  in 


24  TROPICAL  AHIERICA 

the  year,  and  during  the  heated  term,  when  pestilence 
is  to  be  dreaded,  there  are  suburbs  close  at  hand  where 
the  timorous  traveller  can  find  a  safe  refuge.  There  are 
good  theatres,  excellent  restaurants  with  French  cook- 
ing and  wines,  and  innumerable  excursions  and  interest- 
ing sights.  The  old  town  lies  on  a  level  plain  between 
two  ranges  of  hills.  The  streets  are  narrow,  even  the 
Ouvidor  being  hardly  more  than  a  paved  lane,  and  most 
of  the  buildings  are  small,  with  rough  stone  or  brick 
walls  plastered  on  the  outside  or  lined  with  Portuguese 
tiles.  The  architecture  reproduces  the  effects  of  other 
Brazilian  coast  towns,  with  more  ambitious  lines  of  orna- 
mentation and  quieter  tones  of  color.  The  government 
buildings  are  not  impressive,  the  Mint  and  the  new 
Custom  House  being  the  most  pretentious  structures. 
The  National  Library  is  not  worthy  of  the  reputation 
of  the  capital.  The  Misericordia  is  the  largest  of  the 
hospitals,  and  it  is  conducted  on  humane  and  scientific 
principles.  The  churches  are  numerous,  but  shabby, 
neglected,  and  bare.  Electric  light  has  been  sparingly 
introduced,  and  the  streets  are  dimly  lighted  with  infe- 
rior gas.  The  Jardin  da  Praca  d'Acclamagao  is  a  beauti- 
ful and  attractive  park  within  easy  walking  distance  of 
the  Ouvidor,  with  the  City  Hall,  the  Mint,  the  military 
barracks,  and  the  Dom  Pedro  II.  railway  station  front- 
ing upon  its  outer  edges.  It  divides  popularity  with 
the  Passeio  Publico  on  the  water-front,  and  is  accessible 
from  every  quarter,  whereas  the  Botanical  Garden,  with 
its  famous  alleys  of  palms  and  its  bamboo  clumps,  is  an 
hour's  drive  from  the  heart  of  the  city.  Rio  de  Janeiro 
is  a  city  of  great  commercial  importance,  rivalled  only 
by  Buenos  Aj^-es  in  South  America,  but  it  is  backward 
and  almost  stationary  in  municipal  improvements  and 
modern  progress. 


A   VOYAGE  TO   RIO  25 

Great  as  are  the  natural  advantages  of  the  Brazilian 
capital,  and  picturesque  and  inspiring  as  are  the  glimpses 
of  its  mountain  and  bay  scenery,  the  traveller  in  mid- 
summer finds  his  permanent  source  of  recreation  in 
watching  the  throng  as  it  surges  night  and  morning 
through  the  Ouvidor,  and  in  catching  the  characteristic 
traits  of  the  people.  He  soon  ascertains  that  Rio  de 
Janeiro  aspires  to  be  like  Paris,  and  that  it  closely 
imitates  in  customs,  manners,  and  politics  the  French 
people.  There  is  a  marked  touch  of  Gallic  flippancy  in 
the  tone  of  private  conversation  and  public  life.  The 
Provisional  Government  of  the  revolutionary  period 
was  French  rather  than  English,  American,  or  Portu- 
guese. One  could  feel  in  the  Ouvidor  the  influence  of 
Parisian  thought  and  literature  in  forming  the  habits  of 
thought  and  manner  of  life  of  the  Brazilian  capital.  It 
is  an  open  question  whether  a  century  of  constitutional 
liberty  in  the  United  States  has  exerted  as  much  influ- 
ence in  promoting  the  growth  of  republican  sentiment 
there  as  the  cycle  of  imitation  during  which  French 
books  have  been  read,  and  the  Parisian  philosophy  of 
life  practically  adopted.  Intelligent  Brazilians  are  fond 
of  newspapers,  and  prefer  the  French  type.  Large  edi- 
tions are  printed  every  afternoon,  and  from  the  newsboys' 
excited  outcries  and  frantic  gestures  one  is  tempted  to 
believe  that  a  fresh  revolution  has  occurred,  and  the  Em- 
pire been  restored.  Brazilians  love  excitement,  noise, 
and  fireworks.  Before  the  revolution,  almost  the  only 
town  shows  were  the  image-bearing  processions  during 
Holy  Week  and  on  saints'  days.  During  the  early 
weeks  of  the  Republic  files  of  troops  were  constantly 
parading,  and  the  music  of  the  fife  and  drum  was  heard 
morning  and  night.  The  revolution  brought  with  it 
much  pleasurable  excitement  for  a  volatile  population. 


II 

RIO'S   THREE   GLORIOUS   DAYS 

MUTINY     OF     THE    BATTALIONS GENERAL    DEODORO'S    BRA- 
VADO  THE     REPUBLIC      PROCLAIMED THE      EMPEROr's 

SURRENDER AN   ORLEANS   BARGAIN GENERAL    CAUSES 

OF   DISAFFECTION   WITH    THE    EMPIRE THE   REVOLUTION 

A    LOTTERY 

The  story  of  the  Three  Glorious  Days,  as  the  revo- 
lution of  November,  1889,  is  already  known  in  Brazil, 
was  singularly  bare  of  incident  and  excitement.  The 
imperial  government  was  overturned  by  what  was 
hardly  more  than  a  parade  of  a  few  insubordinate 
battalions,  who  were  disaffected  because  they  had  been 
ordered  to  go  to  a  remote  post  in  the  interior.  If  there 
was  any  preconcerted  plan  among  the  revolutionary 
leaders,  it  was  not  formed  before  the  night  of  November 
9,  1889,  when  the  Piime  Minister  was  entertaining  the 
officers  of  the  Chilian  ironclad  Almirante  Cochrane  at 
a  ball.  On  that  night  disaffected  officers  were  known 
to  be  in  consultation,  but  probably  nothing  was  more 
remote  from  their  thoughts  than  the  expulsion  of  the 
Emperor  from  the  throne.  The  Republican  journals 
had  been  asserting  for  several  weeks  that  the  govern- 
ment intended  to  scatter  the  battalions  among  the  prov- 
inces, and  after  completing  the  organization  of  a 
National  Guard  to  proclaim  the  Princess  as  Empress, 
26 


KIO"S    THREE   GLORIOUS   DAYS  27 

the  Emperor  being  willing  to  retire  in  her  favor. 
Whether  this  was  true  or  false,  the  officers  were  discon- 
tented and  disposed  to  believe  that  the  crown  intended 
to  humiliate  them.  Military  agitators  encouraged  these 
suspicious.  Republican  leaders  while  not  apprehending 
a  revolution  during  the  lifetime  of  the  Emperor  were  in 
the  habit  of  discussing  at  their  clubs  what  would  be  the 
best  method  of  procedure  after  his  death.  Suddenly 
the  military  outbreak  revealed  the  helplessness  of  the 
throne.  The  leaders  perceived  their  opportunity  with- 
out having  accurately  forecast  it.  They  acted  almost 
as  spontaneously  as  the  soldiers,  who  found  themselves 
shouting  for  a  Republic  as  they  were  marching  down 
the  Ouvidor. 

On  November  14,  1889,  tw^o  infantry  battalions  which 
had  been  ordered  to  leave  the  city  the  next  morning 
showed  signs  of  insubordination.  The  Minister  of  War 
was  warned  that  there  was  danger  of  a  general  mutiny, 
but  after  consulting  with  his  colleagues  in  the  evening 
he  decided  to  enforce  discipline.  There  were  in  the 
capital  about  2400  soldiers  of  all  branches  of  the 
service.  The  Minister  of  War  determined  to  concen- 
trate this  force,  and  with  the  aid  of  the  marine  corps 
and  the  police  to  compel  the  mutineers  to  obey  orders 
for  their  transfer  to  a  distant  province.  While  he 
was  preparing  to  overpower  the  insubordinate  battal- 
ions, the  mutiny  was  spreading.  The  officers  of  the 
Second  Brigade  stationed  at  Sao  Christovao  resolved 
to  make  common  cause  with  the  rebels,  and  sent  word 
to  General  Deodoro  da  Fonseca  that  they  would  march 
to  the  War  Offices  early  in  the  morning.  These  offices 
were  situated  in  the  heart  of  the  city  at  the  Campo 
Sant'  Anna  quartel,  the  general  military  l)arracks. 


28  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

At  sunrise  the  city  was  without  premonitions  of  the 
revolution.  The  Minister  of  War,  apprehending  trouble 
at  the  quartel,  had  reinforced  the  police  with  a  small 
body  of  marines  and  a  corps  of  firemen.  He  had  also 
recruited  in  Nictheroy  an  additional  force  of  police. 
Soon  after  daybreak  word  was  received  at  the  War 
Office  that  the  Second  Brigade  had  revolted  and  were 
marching  from  Sao  Christovao.  Soon  afterward  it  was 
learned  that  the  cadets  of  the  military  school  at  Boto- 
fogo  had  seized  their  arms  and  were  heading  for  the 
quartel.  The  Minister  of  War  attempted  to  induce  one 
of  the  generals  at  headquarters  to  rally  a  force  against 
the  Second  Brigade,  but  received  a  blunt  refusal.  He 
then  ordered  a  battalion  to  intercept  the  cadets,  but  the 
troops  would  not  obey  him.  When  the  Second  Brigade, 
headed  by  the  Emperor's  Guard,  the  First  Cavalry,  filed 
in  front  of  the  War  Office  and  invested  the  quartel,  it 
was  evident  that  the  troops  inside  could  not  be  depended 
upon  to  oppose  them.  General  Deodoro,  who  had  been 
seriously  ill  at  his  house  on  the  previous  day,  was  in 
command  of  the  besieging  force,  and  summoned  the 
Ministers  to  surrender.  The  Prime  Minister,  who  had 
arrived  at  the  War  Office  with  other  associates,  returned 
a  defiant  answer ;  but  within  half  an  hour  he  was  con- 
vinced that  defence  was  hopeless.  The  troops  were  all 
in  revolt,  and  the  police  and  the  firemen  were  in  sympa- 
thy with  them. 

Meanwhile,  the  Minister  of  Marine,  Baron  Ladario, 
had  left  the  quartel  without  an  escort,  to  give  instruc- 
tions to  a  company  of  marines.  When  outside  the  door 
he  was  surrounded  by  several  cavalrymen  and  called 
upon  to  surrender.  Drawing  a  revolver,  he  tried  to 
shoot  one  of  the  insurgents,  but  the  cartridge  missed 


RIO'S   THREE   GLORIOUS   DAYS  29 

fire.  General  Deodoro  then  accosted  him  and  warned 
him  that  he  was  a  prisoner.  The  Minister  fired  upon 
him  without  effect.  The  sokliers  at-  once  returned  the 
shot,  and  he  fell  to  the  ground  seriously  but  not  fatally 
wounded.  This  official,  who  fired  the  only  shots  in 
defence  of  the  Empire,  had  served  for  several  years  in 
the  United  States  navy. 

At  nine  o'clock  the  mutinous  troops  of  the  Second 
Brigade  were  still  outside  the  quartel,  and  the  remaining 
military  force  was  drawn  up  inside  on  the  parade-ground. 
By  a  preconcerted  arrangement  the  gates  were  suddenly 
opened,  and  Deodoro  mounted  on  a  fine  horse  rode  in 
and  approached  the  files  of  soldiers.  Nothing  was  more 
remarkable  in  the  events  of  the  day  than  this  trium- 
phant bit  of  bravado.  The  Ministers  were  present,  but 
they  made  no  effort  to  secure  his  arrest.  He  rode 
along  the  line  and  inspected  the  men,  slowly  receiving 
a  salute  as  he  passed.  Then  he  turned  his  horse  toward 
the  gates,  and  the  troops  with  one  consent  broke  ranks 
and  followed  him  into  the  street.  The  garrison  by 
deserting  the  Ministers  left  them  at  the  mercy  of  the 
insurgents.  The  general  after  conferring  with  the 
adjutant-general  announced  that  the  army  had  deposed 
the  Ministry.  The  Prime  Minister  and  the  Minister  of 
War  were  placed  under  arrest.  A  salute  of  twenty-one 
guns  was  fired.  The  troops  then  marched  through  the 
Ouvidor  with  a  swaggering  air  of  triumph.  It  was 
hardly  ten  o'clock,  and  only  one  man  had  been  wounded. 

The  Ministry  had  fallen,  but  not  the  Empire.  The 
Emperor  was  known  to  be  hastening  to  the  city  from 
Petropolis,  liaving  been  summoned  by  Count  Ouro 
Preto,  the  Prime  Minister.  Before  his  arrival  at  the 
palace  the  Repulilic  had  been  proclaimed.     The  troops 


30  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

had  not  revolted  against  the  Emperor,  but  only  against 
the  administration  of  the  War  Office.  At  the  outset 
they  would  have  been  satisfied  with  the  appointment  of 
a  new  Minister  of  War,  but  involuntarily  as  they  were 
marching  in  the  streets  they  began  to  shout  for  the 
Republic.  The  overthrow  of  the  Ministry  revealed  the 
defenceless  condition  of  the  imperial  family.  The  facil- 
ity with  which  the  revolution  could  be  carried  to  its 
logical  result  tempted  the  leaders  to  go  on  and  complete 
the  work.  Among  the  Republican  agitators  who  had 
joined  the  insurgents  were  Colonel  Benjamin  Constant, 
of  the  Military  School,  and  Quintino  Bocayuva,  editor 
of  a  prominent  journal.  After  a  brief  conference  they 
made  arrangements  for  holding  a  meeting  in  the  City 
Hall  at  three  o'clock,  in  favor  of  the  establishment  of  a 
republic.  With  cadets  singing  in  the  streets,  soldiers 
shouting  themselves  hoarse,  flags  fluttering  from  every 
house,  and  enthusiasm  spreading  from  hillside  to  hill- 
side in  the  grim  old  capital,  General  Deodoro  no  longer 
hesitated.  The  Republic  was  proclaimed  and  a  provis- 
ional government  with  a  chief  and  seven  Ministers  was 
organized.  At  the  City  Hall  after  a  speech  from  a 
popular  agitator  the  Republic  was  accepted  by  a  large 
concourse  with  every  sign  of  public  favor.  Late  edi- 
tions of  the  evening  journals  published  the  first  decree 
of  the  Provisional  Government  establishing  the  United 
States  of  Brazil. 

The  Emperor  and  the  Empress  had  arrived  during 
the  afternoon  at  the  palace  without  escort  from  the 
Prainha  and  had  been  joined  by  the  Princess  and  her 
husband,  Count  d'Eu.  The  aged  sovereign  could  not 
be  convinced  that  anything  more  serious  than  a  minis- 
terial crisis  had  occurred.     At  half-past  three  o'clock 


RIO'S   THREE   GLORIOUS   DAYS  31 

he  received  the  resignations  of  the  Ministers  and  asked 
Senator  Saraiva  to  form  a  new  government.  The  sena- 
tor in  declining  to  undertake  the  task  sought  to  explain 
how  critical  was  the  situation.  As  hour  after  hour 
passed,  signs  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Empire  were  mul- 
tiplied. Every  branch  of  the  civil  service  in  the  capital 
was  controlled  by  the  revolutionists,  and  before  nightfall 
the  telegraph  wires  were  bearing  messages  betokening 
the  acceptance  of  the  new  order  by  the  provinces. 
Guards  were  stationed  at  the  doors  of  the  palace,  and 
the  Emperor  j^assed  a  sleepless  night,  humiliated  by  the 
thought  that  he  was  a  prisoner  and  could  no  longer 
depend  upon  the  loyalty  of  his  people.  So  ended  the 
first  day  of  the  revolution. 

On  the  morning  of  the  second  day  there  were  hurried 
consultations  between  the  Emperor  and  his  distracted 
family  and  ineffectual  efforts  to  secure  the  services  of  a 
new  Prime  Minister.  The  guards  in  front  of  the  palace 
were  doubled  and  precautions  taken  by  the  revolution- 
ary leaders  to  cut  off  communication  between  the  occu- 
pants and  their  friends  outside.  At  two  o'clock,  after 
an  anxious  morning,  during  which  his  helplessness  was 
revealed,  the  Emperor  received  from  the  Provisional 
Government  a  summons  to  leave  the  country  within 
twenty-four  hours.  It  was  embodied  in  an  imperious 
letter  from  General  Deodoro,  in  which  the  presence  of 
the  royal  family  in  Brazil  was  declared  to  be  incompati- 
ble with  the  new  political  situation.  The  Emperor  was 
reminded  of  the  patriotic  example  of  his  father,  who  had 
abdicated  under  similar  circumstances  nearly  sixty  years 
before,  and  was  offered  transportation  to  Europe  and  a 
continuance  of  tlie  income  which  he  had  received  from 
the  State.     Consultations  with  the  Republican   leaders 


32  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

followed.  The  Emperor  met  them  with  bent  form,  a 
heavily-lined,  distressed  face,  and  the  dazed  air  of  a 
man  who  had  received  a  shock  which  would  carry  him 
into  his  grave.  The  Crown  Princess  standing  by  his 
side  was  unable  to  control  herself,  and  sobbed  bitterly. 
Count  d'Eu  alone  seemed  to  have  his  wits  about  him. 
Through  the  intervention  of  his  steward  the  financial 
embarrassments  of  the  Emperor  were  made  known  as 
an  excuse  for  deferring  his  departure.  From  the  state- 
ment furnished  by  the  steward  it  appeared  that  2,000,000 
milreis  would  be  needed  at  once.  The  Minister  of 
Finance  promptly  issued  a  decree  granting  5,000,000 
milreis  in  one  payment,  in  addition  to  his  regular  allow- 
ances from  the  civil  list  amounting  to  1400,000  a  year. 
The  bargain  was  closed.  The  Emperor  and  the  Crown 
Princess  consented  to  sail  for  Europe  on  the  next  day 
with  their  families.  So  ended  the  second  of  the  Three 
Glorious  Days. 

The  Orleans  prince  probably  took  great  credit  on 
that  night  for  his  practical  ability  in  saving  12,500,000 
out  of  the  wreck  of  the  imperial  fortunes.  He  called  in 
his  steward  and  virtually  sold  out  the  reigning  family's 
stock  in  trade.  It  was  a  shrewd  stroke  of  business  on  his 
side  ;  but  when  all  the  circumstances  were  considered,  the 
main  credit  for  making  a  good  bargain  could  be  taken 
by  the  revolutionary  leaders.  They  were  in  a  critical 
position.  They  controlled  the  garrison  of  the  national 
capital,  the  treasury,  and  all  the  public  offices ;  and  in 
Sao  Paulo  and  several  other  provinces  provisional  gov- 
ernments had  been  promptly  organized ;  but  in  Rio 
Grande  do  Sul  there  were  indications  of  disturbance, 
and  it  had  been  necessary  to  order  the  arrest  of  the 
most  powerful  leader  of  the  province.  Senator  Silveira 


a 


EIO'S   THREE   GLORIOUS   DAYS  33 

Martins;  and  at  Bahia,  the  ecclesiastical  centre  of  the 
country,  the  revolutionary  movement  had  been  strenu- 
ously opposed.  The  temper  of  the  northern  and  interior 
provinces  was  unknown.  It  was  a  matter  of  urgent 
necessity  that  the  Emperor  and  his  family  should  be 
taken  out  of  the  country  with  the  least  possible  delay. 
If  this  could  be  done  the  battle  of  the  Republic  would 
be  won  without  a  struggle.  If  the  imperial  family  were 
to  remain  in  Brazil,  the  revolution  might  end  in  civil 
war.  By  the  payment  of  #2,500,000  the  Provisional 
Government  secured  the  immediate  adhesion  of  all  the 
provinces.  By  producing  evidence  that  the  imperial 
family  had  sold  out  their  rights  and  were  ready  to  leave 
the  country  they  convinced  all  classes  that  the  Republic 
was  the  only  form  of  government  which  was  practical 
or  even  possible  in  Brazil.  It  was  a  master  stroke  of 
policy. 

During  the  forenoon  of  the  third  day  it  was  generally 
known  that  the  imperial  family  had  been  conducted 
soon  after  midnight  to  a  gunboat,  and  had  been  trans- 
ferred subsequently  to  a  steam  packet  bound  for  Lisbon. 
By  their  departure  the  population  of  the  capital  was 
relieved  at  once  from  dread  of  reactionary  intrigue  and 
civil  war.  The  equivalent  in  hard  cash  paid  for  the 
vacation  of  the  throne  conciliated  all  classes  with  whom 
the  Emperor  had  been  popular,  since  it  was  a  signal 
proof  that  he  had  not  been  turned  adrift  like  a  beggar 
after  a  long  reign,  but  had  been  dealt  with  generously, 
and  had  been  pensioned  at  the  rate  of  $400,000  a  year 
for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  At  the  same  time  it  con- 
vinced them  that  monarchy  was  at  an  end  and  that  a 
republic  was  a  necessity.  But  the  Emperor  and  Count 
d'Eu  when  they  reached  Lisbon,  after  an  uneventful 


34  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

voyage,  repented  of  the  bargain  which  had  made  the 
political  fortunes  of  the  revolutionists.  They  were 
convinced  by  their  advisers  that  they  had  blundered  in 
accepting  a  financial  settlement  which  compromised 
their  claims  to  the  throne.  When  it  was  too  late  they 
repudiated  the  bargain,  and  subjected  themselves  to  a 
retaliatory  decree  from  the  Provisional  Government 
annulling  the  settlement,  although  the  constitution  sub- 
sequently provided  for  the  payment  of  an  annual  pen- 
sion to  the  Emperor.  The  revolutionary  leaders  derived 
all  the  advantages  of  magnanimous  treatment  of  the 
imperial  family  without  being  forced  in  the  end  to  pay 
the  costs.  The  revolution  ended  on  the  third  day  with 
the  departure  of  the  royal  exiles.  The  Prime  Minister, 
Count  Ouro  Preto,  was  arrested  a  second  time  for  vio- 
lating his  parole,  but  was  allowed  to  leave  the  country. 
A  decree  of  banishment  Avas  subsequently  enforced 
against  Senator  Silveira  Martins  and  a  brother  of 
Count  Ouro  Preto.  These  were  the  only  proscriptions 
involved  by  a  revolution  conspicuous  for  the  facility 
with  which  momentous  changfes  were  effected. 

The  revolution  as  a  military  event  was  one  of  the 
most  grotesque  in  history.  A  few  battalions  which  had 
been  ordered  to  a  remote  province  overturned  the 
Empire.  They  were  young,  inexperienced,  ill-disci- 
plined soldiers,  who  had  never  had  experience  in  field 
evolutions.  They  were  raw  and  untrustworthy  troops, 
and  overthrew  the  Empire  without  bloodshed  and 
almost  without  a  struggle.  The  new  government  was 
established  in  a  few  liours ;  and  within  three  days  the 
provincial  administrations  were  revolutionized  all  along 
the  coast.  By  a  few  strokes  of  the  pen  all  the  legisla- 
tive bodies  in  Brazil  were  abolished.     All  the  institu- 


RIO'S   THEEE   GLORIOUS   DAYS  35 

tions  of  the  Empire  were  swept  awaj^  The  Provisional 
Government  and  twenty  subordinate  revolutionary  ad- 
ministrations in  the  provinces  were  established  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  everything  that  had  previously  existed  under 
constitutional  warrants.  The  Ministers  began  to  issue 
decrees  at  a  rate  that  made  men's  heads  reel.  The 
French  Revolution  in  its  most  paroxysmal  periods  never 
witnessed  activity  equal  to  that  of  these  new  decree- 
makers.  Naturalization,  the  franchise,  civil  marriage,  a 
constitutional  commission,  and  a  hundred  other  matters 
of  the  gravest  importance  were  settled  off-hand  by  a 
revolutionary  commission  created  by  a  few  battalions  of 
soldiers.  The  country  acquiesced  in  all  these  arrange- 
ments with  an  apathy  and  an  indifference  never  paral- 
leled in  history.  The  accomplished  editor  of  the  Rio 
News  told  the  truth  when  he  said  to  me  that  the  Bra- 
zilians threw  oft"  the  Empire  as  easily  as  they  would 
have  changed  their  coats. 

The  influence  of  the  military  officers  was  felt 
wherever  the  tidings  of  the  revolution  at  Rio  de  Ja- 
neiro were  received.  There  was  a  smaller  Deodoro  in 
every  provincial  capital,  ready  to  act  promptly  and  to 
take  the  initiative  in  transferring  power  from  the  im- 
perial authorities  to  new  hands,  precisely  as  the  greater 
Deodoro  had  done  in  the  national  capital.  A  coalition 
of  insubordinate  army  officers  and  inexperienced  con- 
stitution-makers \vould  have  been  impracticable  if  the 
leaders  had  not  known  that  the  twenty  provinces  of  the 
Empire  were  profoundly  disaffected,  and  would  regard 
with  apathy  the  downfall  of  the  Empire.  This  fact  lies 
at  the  base  of  any  adequate  explanation  of  the  rev- 
olution. The  ]\Iilitary  Club  was  a  power  in  the  capital ; 
the  Republican  organizers  had  made  progress  in  the  more 


36  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

enlightened  and  enterprising  provinces  like  Sao  Paulo  ; 
but  the  revolutionists  would  not  have  undertaken  the 
political  reorganization  of  Brazil  if  there  had  not  been 
in  every  quarter  of  the  sky  signs  of  revolt  against  a  des- 
potic system  of  centralized  administration.  It  was  in 
this  direction  that  every  intelligent  Brazilian  whom  I 
met  never  failed  to  point,  when  asked  to  explain  the 
chief  cause  of  the  revolution. 

Ruy  Barbosa,  Minister  of  Finance,  in  the  course  of 
frank  conversations  with  me  in  Rio  de  Janeiro,  strongly 
supported  this  view.  He  said  that  the  most  prominent 
ground  of  dissatisfaction  with  the  Empire  was  central- 
ization, with  the  absence  of  any  real  federal  system. 
The  people  of  Brazil  had  gradually  lost  all  interest  in 
the  Empire.  The  Emperor  might  have  had  amiable 
intentions,  but  the  system  of  administration  was  thor- 
oughly corrupt  and  incompetent.  The  provinces  had  no 
rights  as  members  of  a  confederation  of  states.  They 
longed  for  autonomy  in  local  administration.  The 
Emperor  had  grown  old,  his  mind  had  failed  him,  and 
he  was  suffering  from  an  incurable  disease.  In  his 
dotage,  the  Princess  Isabel  was  the  real  head  of  the 
State.  Surrounded  by  Jesuits,  she  had  no  will  of  her 
own.  Priests  were  always  about  her,  and  clericalism 
was  threatening  to  become  a  direct  menace  to  Brazilian 
liberty.  The  Empire  had  served  its  purpose,  and  was 
out  of  date.  It  retarded  national  progress.  It  was  ab- 
solutely necessary  to  assimilate  the  institutions  of  the 
country  with  those  of  the  liberal  and  progressive  repub- 
lics on  the  American  continent.  Every  thoughtful 
Brazilian  had  been  conscious  that  the  revolution  was 
imminent.  The  military  revolt  would  have  failed  if  the 
country  had  not  been  gradually  preparing  for  a  change 


EIO'S   THKEE   GLOEIOUS   DAYS  37 

of  political  order.  The  revolution  was  a  startling  sur- 
prise to  those  who  were  not  familiar  with  the  conditions 
of  public  thought ;  but  all  intelligent  citizens  had  for  a 
long  time  accepted  it  as  a  foregone  conclusion.  When 
the  military  forces  set  the  patriotic  example  of  declaring 
for  the  Republic,  the  people  in  all  the  provinces  acqui- 
esced in  the  movement  with  a  unanimity  that  armed 
the  Provisional  Government  with  absolute  authority. 
It  was  in  its  earliest  aspect  a  military  revolt,  but  the 
hearty  support  of  all  classes  of  Brazilians  in  all  the 
provinces  converted  it  at  once  into  an  irresistible 
national  movement. 

A  leader  of  the  revolution  was  not  perhaps  capable  of 
forming  an  impartial  estimate  of  the  civic  virtues  of  a 
sovereign  who  had  enjoyed  the  reputation  of  being  one 
of  the  most  enlightened  rulers  of  his  time.  Dom  Pedro 
II.  was  a  ruler  with  many  fine  qualities  and  estimable 
traits,  who  endeared  himself  to  his  subjects.  He  was 
not  a  constitutional  reformer.  The  charter  which  he 
had  received  from  his  father  was  not  modified  in  any 
essential  respect  during  his  long  reign.  It  was  a  charter 
under  which  his  father,  after  establishing  the  inde- 
pendence of  Brazil,  had  sought  to  create  a  despotism. 
The  father  went  into  exile  after  a  ten  years'  struggle 
against  the  aspirations  of  the  provinces  for  home  rule. 
The  son  followed  him  into  banishment,  after  a  long 
reign,  during  which  the  same  tendencies  of  the  federal 
provinces  were  systematically  repressed.  The  govern- 
ors or  presidents  were  not  elected  by  the  people  of  the 
provinces,  but  were  appointed  by  the  Emperor,  together 
with  the  military  commandants.  One  of  the  standing- 
evils  against  which  tlie  provinces  ineffectually  protested 
was  the  appointment  either  of  adventurers  who  were 


38  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

unfamiliar  with  the  local  requirements  and  interests,  or 
of  political  partisans  sent  out  from  the  national  capital 
to  promote  the  selfish  interests  of  the  party  in  power. 

Throughout  the  closing  years  of  the  Emperor's  reign  it 
was  an  unfailing  source  of  irritation  and  complaint  that 
the  provinces  were  governed,  not  for  their  own  interests, 
but  for  those  of  the  imperial  administration.  The  main 
object  seemed  to  be  to  get  out  of  them  as  much  money 
as  possible  for  the  national  treasury  and  to  leave  little, 
if  anything,  for  local  requirements.  The  provinces  were 
so  many  cows  to  be  milked  for  the  imperial  dairy.  Local 
government  in  any  real  sense  they  did  not  have.  The 
legislatures  meeting  two  months  in  the  year  exercised 
limited  functions  and  were  powerless  to  interfere  with 
the  military  proconsuls.  Every  branch  of  the  govern- 
ment was  under  pressure  from  an  imperial  system  re- 
sembling the  complex  mechanism  which  Metternich 
established  and  controlled  in  Vienna,  until  it  broke 
down  under  its  own  weight.  Each  party  in  turn  was 
employed  to  operate  the  system,  the  Emperor  pitting 
the  Liberals  against  the  Conservatives  for  no  other  ap- 
parent purpose  than  that  of  maintaining  his  own  personal 
ascendency  over  both.  Ministers  became  groups  of  pro- 
fessional office-holders  and  patronage-mongers,  whose 
political  opinions  could  with  difficulty  be  differentiated. 

A  Liberal  ministry  was,  if  anything,  less  progressive 
in  its  tendency  and  more  obsequious  in  its  attitude  to 
the  throne  than  a  Conservative  ministry.  The  Emperor 
regarded  the  two  groups  of  political  rivals  as  alteiiiating 
machines,  fitting  into  and  working  with  the  imperial 
mechanism;  and  the  governors  of  the  provinces  were 
twenty  connecting  cog-wheels  kept  in  motion  by  the 
ministerial  apparatus.      Emerson  once  said  of  the  Eng- 


mo'S   THEEE   GLORIOUS   DAYS  39 

lish,  "  Their  god  is  Precedent."  Dom  Pedro's  god  was 
Centralization.  The  provinces  only  needed  evidence 
that  a  government  competent  to  maintain  public  order 
and  to  repress  anarchy  had  been  formed.  Disaffected 
and  out  of  sympathy  with  a  system  that  deprived  them 
of  the  normal  functions  of  self-government,  they  offered 
no  resistance  to  the  establishment  of  the  Republic  with 
its  promise  of  larger  liberties  for  the  confederated  States. 
The  revolution  seemed  to  them  a  supreme  act  of  political 
emancipation. 

There  were  other  grounds  for  dissatisfaction  with 
monarchical  institutions.  Emancipation  had  created 
wide-spread  disaffection  among  planters  and  land-owners 
and  weakened  the  authority  of  the  imperial  govern- 
ment. The  slave-holders  had  not  been  prepared  for 
emancipation  when  it  was  decreed  without  wai-ning  by 
the  Princess-Regent.  They  were  taken  by  surprise 
and  forced  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  conditions  of 
free  labor  and  to  face  the  vicissitudes  of  a  transition 
period  which  had  been  fatal  to  British  planters  in  the 
West  Indies.  They  had  been  the  most  loyal  supporters 
of  the  crown,  and  they  felt  that  their  interests  had 
been  wantonly  sacrificed.  The  Princess-Regent  when 
she  signed  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  left  the 
slave-owners  to  shift  for  themselves.  In  the  crisis  of 
the  revolution  the  planters  and  land-holders  left  the 
imperial  family  to  shift  for  themselves.  There  were 
no  signs  of  resistance  in  the  agricultural  provinces  of 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  Sao  Paulo  and  Minas  Geraes,  where 
more  than  one-half  of  the  slaves  had  been  owned.  The 
planters  who  had  controlled  the  government  of  the 
Empire  for  half  a  century  witnessed  with  apathy  and 
cynical  indifference  the  establishment  of  a  republic  by 


40  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

a  military  cabal.  The  imperial  dynasty  had  abandoned 
them  to  their  fate.  It  was  a  game  at  which  two  could 
play. 

If  the  planters  were  disaffected,  so  also  were  Brazil- 
ians in  general.  They  knew  that  they  had  all  the 
conditions  required  for  making  a  rich  and  prosperous 
nation.  What  was  needed  was  European  immigration 
on  a  large  scale,  and  they  had  failed  in  all  their  efforts 
to  attract  it  by  colonization  schemes  and  bounties. 
While  the  Plate  countries  were  a  powerful  magnet  for 
drawing  Europeans  to  the  New  World,  and  their  com- 
merce was  expanding  with  phenomenal  rapidity,  Brazil 
seemed  to  exercise  a  repellent  force,  and  remained 
stationary.  There  was  a  general  conviction  that  prog- 
ress in  material  wealth  was  retarded  by  monarchical 
institutions.  All  educated  men  were  looking  for  the 
establishment  of  a  republic  after  the  close  of  the  reign 
of  Dom  Pedro  II.  When  the  change  of  government 
came  without  bloodshed  and  almost  without  a  struggle, 
bringing  emancipation  from  the  evils  of  centralization 
and  the  reactionary  intrigues  of  clericalism,  they  were 
momentarily  startled  and  then  overjoyed  by  the  facility 
with  which  the  Empire  had  been  overthrown.  The 
Princess-Regent  if  she  had  become  Empress  would  have 
made  a  determined  fight  for  the  throne.  Civil  war  had 
been  averted  by  a  well-timed  revolution.  Brazil  under 
republican  order  would  cease  to  repel  immigration.  An 
era  of  industrial  progress  would  at  once  be  opened.  The 
United  States  of  Brazil  would  be  destined  to  rival  the 
United  States  of  America  in  wealth  and  population  as 
they  already  did  in  territory  and  natural  resources. 
This  was  the  tone  of  public  thought  during  the  tranquil 
weeks  which  followed  the  revolution  at  Rio  de  Janeiro. 


mo's  THREE  GLORIOUS   DAYS  41 

The  apathy  of  the  people  was  the  most  astounding 
feature  of  the  revolution.  On  the  clay  after  my  arrival, 
a  decree  was  issued  which  practically  established  martial 
law  throughout  the  country.  There  had  been  a  trivial 
mutiny  a  few  days  before  among  some  drunken  soldiers, 
and  owing  to  the  absence  of  commissioned  officers  the 
imperial  flag  had  been  raised.  It  was  a  ridiculous 
affair,  but  it  thoroughly  alarmed  the  government.  On 
the  strength  of  that  mutiny  martial  law  was  proclaimed. 
A  military  commission  was  appointed  to  investigate  the 
affair,  and  eleven  suspects  were  examined,  nine  of  them 
being  set  at  liberty.  A  decree  was  proclaimed  investing 
the  commission  with  the  powers  and  functions  of  a 
military  court.  An  elastic  list  of  political  offences,  begin- 
ning with  conspiracy  against  the  Republic  and  incite- 
ment to  military  mutiny  and  ending  with  speaking  and 
writing  against  the  existing  order  of  government,  was 
made  up,  and  all  civil  processes  were  suspended  in  such 
cases.  The  commission  was  empowered  to  take  cog- 
nizance of  all  such  offences,  and  to  try  susjDected  per- 
sons by  martial  law.  The  decree  was  applied  to  the 
whole  country.  The  proprietors  of  tlie  only  Opposition 
journal  at  once  sought  an  interview  with  the  Ministers, 
and  according  to  their  own  version  were  informed  that 
the  decree  applied  to  press  offences.  They  suspended 
the  publication  of  their  journal.  Free  speech  had  been 
one  of  the  political  rights  guaranteed  by  the  imperial 
constitution.  Republican  editors  had  enjoyed  immu- 
nity from  press  laws,  and  if  their  rights  had  been 
denied,  a  revolution  would  have  been  precipitated.  The 
principles  of  a  free  press  were  compromised  by  a  decree 
which  made  it  dangerous  for  any  one  to  s})eak  ill  or 
to  write  critically  of  the  Republican  government,  but 


42  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

nothing  came  of  it.  Apathy  reigned.  Martial  law  was 
complacently  regarded  as  a  necessary  evil.  Each  after- 
noon new  decrees  were  read  in  the  newspapers  and  then 
cigarettes  were  puffed  and  the  favorable  weather  was 
discussed.  I  found  myself  wondering  whether  a  decree 
formulating  a  new  Decalogue  would  make  much  stir. 

It  was  this  condition  of  public  apathy  which  ex- 
plained the  strange  proceedings  of  the  Three  Glorious 
Days.  The  people  submitted  to  the  overthrow  of  the 
Empire  because  they  had  ceased  to  care  anything  about 
it.  They  attributed  the  backwardness  of  their  own 
country  to  the  form  of  government.  They  disliked 
centralization,  clericalism,  and  other  tendencies  of  im- 
perial rule.  They  wanted  a  change,  and  so  when  the 
Empire  went  down  like  a  child's  sand  palace,  they  were 
indifferent  to  its  fate.  The  new  government  came  in 
with  its  highly  improved  mechanism  for  grinding  out 
decrees  like  stock  quotations  on  a  ticker;  and  the 
people  looked  on  with  languid  indifference.  Govern- 
ment by  self-organized  military  commissions  was  insti- 
tuted, but  nobody  seemed  to  take  any  interest  in  it. 
Martial  law  was  proclaimed,  and  there  was  no  excitement. 
If  Brazilians  had  any  serious  thought  in  this  whole 
matter,  it  was  the  reflection  that  the  country  needed  a 
thorough  shaking  up,  and  was  getting  it. 

I  thought  of  these  things  on  the  last  day  of  1889, 
when  the  bells  rang  out  the  year  of  Republican  jubilee. 
The  streets  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  were  thronged  with  a 
joyous  populace.  Militar}^  bands  in  open  street  cars 
were  entertaining  the  holiday  crowds  with  snatches  of 
French  music ;  army  officers  were  conspicuous  in  the 
streets,  with  an  air  of  importance  betokening  conscious- 
ness of  their  success  in  making  history  hand  over  hand, 


RIO'S   THREE   GLORIOUS   DAYS  43 

and  of  their  ability  to  undo  their  work  and  to  restore 
the  Empire  at  any  hour.  Lottery-ticket  vendors  swarmed 
in  the  Passeio  Publico  and  plied  a  brisk  trade.  To 
drink  a  strong  native  brew,  to  listen  to  a  noisy  military 
band,  and  to  attend  the  official  readings  from  a  lottery 
wheel,  complete  a  Brazilian's  holiday  recreation.  I 
watched  a  motley  throng  gathered  about  a  lottery 
stand,  and  fancied  that  I  understood  the  feeling  of 
apathy  and  frivolity  with  which  the  downfall  of  the 
Empire  and  the  establishment  of  a  provisional  govern- 
ment had  been  received.  Lottery  gambling  had  for 
many  years  been  a  passion ;  the  Church  had  sanctioned 
it  as  a  legitimate  means  of  raising  money  for  hospitals 
and  religious  purposes.  Many  of  the  finest  churches  in 
the  capital  had  been  built  in  that  way.  If  the  sanitary 
condition  of  a  town  was  to  be  improved,  a  statue 
erected,  or  a  burdensome  floating  debt  paid  off,  a  lottery 
was  brought  in  as  a  popular  expedient.  The  Brazilians 
seemed  to  be  infatuated  with  a  frenzy  for  taking  chances 
in  these  gambling  wheels,  and  were  constantly  drawing 
their  money  out  of  savings  Ijanks  to  fling  away  in  the 
excitement  of  a  lottery.  The  revolution  burst  upon  a 
people  who  were  accustomed  to  the  philosophy  of  blanks 
and  prizes.  General  Deodoro  won  the  first  prize ;  the 
Emperor  and  his  family  drew  blanks.  The  ministers  of 
the  day,  who  had  never  been  in  public  life,  carried  off  a 
series  of  second  prizes.  The  people  had  in  the  Republic 
something  that  might  prove  either  a  blank  or  a  prize, 
they  knew  not  which,  but  it  was  a  great  lottery,  and 
they  had  all  drawn  their  numbers  and  must  wait  and 
watch  their  luck.  • 


Ill 

PETROPOLIS  WITHOUT  AN  EMPEROR 

JOURNEY     TO     THE     BRAZILIAN     CATSKILLS CHRISTMAS     IN 

A     LOVELY     VALLEY A      PALACE      CLOSED      AND     SEALED 

A       SHABBY-GENTEEL      COURT DEPARTURE       OF       THE 

IMPERIAL       EXILES  CLERICALISM        AT        COURT  THE 

empress's    DEATH 

The  Brazilian  Catskills  are  only  twenty-five  miles 
from  the  steaming  pavements  and  polluted  harbor  of 
Rio  de  Janeiro.  A  steamer  leaves  the  Prainha  every 
afternoon  during  the  summer  months.  When  I  went 
with  a  party  of  Americans  to  the  mountains  on  the  day 
before  Christmas,  the  deck  was  crowded  with  diplomats, 
politicians,  and  business  men,  whose  homes  were  in 
Petropolis.  I  sat  near  the  Minister  of  Justice,  Campos 
Salles,  whose  strong,  thoughtful,  and  benevolent  face 
showed  no  signs  of  the  political  anxieties  of  the  revo- 
lutionary epoch.  He  read  a  newspaper  quietly  and 
seemed  to  take  politics  less  seriously  than  the  throngs 
gathered  around  him.  If  they  had  been  with  him  in 
the  innermost  circle  and  had  come  from  a  cabinet  meet- 
ing at  which  a  decree  of  martial  law  was  proclaimed, 
they  would  have  known  more  and  have  said  less ;  but 
they  were  outside,  and  at  liberty  to  discuss  the  rumors 
of  the  day  with  pantomime  of  frantic  gesture  and 
unceasing  play  of  facial  expression. 
44 


PETROPOLIS   WITHOUT   AN   EMPEROR  45 

Introductions  followed  rapidly,  and  before  the  steamer 
started  I  had  received  several  accounts  from  eye-wit- 
nesses of  the  bloodless  revolution.  Foreign  residents 
spoke  with  cynical  contempt  of  the  battalions  which  had 
overthrown  the  dynasty.  A  former  New  Yorker  told 
me  that  a  single  squad  of  Broadway  police  could  have 
saved  the  throne.  Another  American  undertook  to 
explain  why  the  revolution  had  been  a  bloodless  one.  A 
new  military  rifle  had  been  introduced  and  the  old  stock 
of  ammunition  could  not  be  used  with  it.  Before  the 
troops  could  be  supplied  with  new  cartridges  they  were 
ordered  to  a  remote  province.  They  rebelled  and  over- 
threw the  Empire,  but  while  they  were  surrounding  the 
government  buildings  and  parading  in  the  Ouvidor  they 
could  not  fire  a  shot.  This  recital  seemed  incredible, 
but  it  was  hardly  more  grotesque  than  the  facility  with 
which  the  Republic  was  established  by  a  few  battalions 
of  young,  inexperienced,  and  ill-disciplined  soldiers. 
An  English  acquaintance  told  me  how  the  first  news  of 
the  revolution  reached  Europe.  He  was  in  the  street, 
and  saw  the  troops  blocking  the  entrance  to  the  govern- 
ment offices.  He  waited  until  he  heard  an  excited 
crowd  shouting  for  a  republic,  and  then  ran  to  a  cable 
office  and  sent  a  despatch  to  London  announcing  that 
the  government  had  been  overthrown  and  that  a 
republic  was  about  to  be  proclaimed.  Five  minutes 
afterward  the  cable  office  was  in  the  possession  of  the 
revolutionists  and  communication  with  the  world  was 
broken  off. 

There  was  a  long  interval  of  inexplicable  delay  at  the 
wharf,  procrastination  being  regarded  in  Brazil,  not  as 
.the  thief,  but  as  the  custodian,  of  time,  and  then  the 
steamer  was  headed  toward  the  majestic  Organ  Moun- 


46  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

tains.  The  old  Benedictine  monastery  loomed  up  on 
the  right  with  the  ship-yards  of  the  Marine  Hospital 
below  it,  while  on  the  left  were  the  main  coffee  store- 
houses, with  a  dry  dock  close  at  hand,  which  was  one 
of  the  most  curious  things  to  be  seen  in  the  city.  It 
was  a  huge  basin  chiselled  and  hollowed  out  of  solid 
rock  by  convict  labor,  —  a  public  work  wrought  by 
Egyptian  methods  in  this  modern  age.  The  city  lying 
like  an  encampment,  with  its  line  of  grim  hillsides 
posted  as  sentinels  from  the  water's  edge  at  Castello 
and  Gloria  to  the  outermost  suburbs,  slowly  receded 
from  view.  The  waters  of  the  upper  bay,  studded  with 
islands,  opened  vistas  of  enchanting  loveliness.  It  was 
an  hour's  sail  of  unrivalled  beauty.  The  massive  ram- 
parts of  the  Organ  Mountains  were  still  ten  miles  away 
when  the  steamer  approached  the  landing.  A  train  of 
small  open  cars  was  waiting  to  carry  the  passengers  to 
the  base  of  the  mountains,  over  the  oldest  railway  in 
Brazil.  It  was  a  dull,  noisy  ride  through  low,  swampy 
lands  until  the  foot  of  the  range  was  reached.  Then 
for  four  miles  there  were  precipitous  grades  with  mag- 
nificent prospects  of  harbor  and  town,  and  flashing 
glimpses  of  foaming  brooks,  and  the  old  carriage  road. 
The  train  was  separated  into  sections  and  operated  on 
the  Riggenbach  system.  In  the  course  of  half  an  hour 
an  altitude  of  2800  feet  was  reached,  with  a  viaduct  200 
feet  long  near  the  summit.  This  section  of  the  railway 
is  new,  and  it  is  a  remarkably  good  engineering  work. 
It  is  a  journey  of  unceasing  variety  and  delight.  The 
scenic  transformations  of  the  mountains  surpass  even 
the  wonderful  panoramic  effects  of  the  harbor. 

Petropolis  lies  in  a  valley  of  the   Serra  da  Estrella 
among  the  Organ  Mountains.     It  is  2700  feet  above  the 


PETROPOLIS    WITHOUT    AN   EMPEROR  47 

sea  and  revels  in  an  invigorating  climate.  Yellow  Jack 
has  never  flaunted  his  flag  there.  It  is  a  secure  refuge 
even  when  pestilence  is  raging  in  the  panic-stricken 
capital.  As  a  summer  residence  it  is  unrivalled  in 
Brazil.  It  has  comfortable  German  hotels,  tasteful 
houses,  well-kept  lawns,  luxuriant  gardens,  delightful 
drives  and  scenery  unsurpassed  elsewhere  in  Brazil. 
The  valley  is  encompassed  with  mountain  peaks  which 
can  be  easily  scaled  by  roadway  or  path.  In  one  of  the 
gorges  there  is  a  picturesque  cascade.  Through  another 
winds  the  old  turnpike  to  an  outlying  town  in  Minas 
Geraes.  The  valley  is  traversed  by  brooks  which  are 
spanned  by  substantial  iron  bridges  at  the  roadway 
crossings.  The  shops  are  cluttered  together,  and  the 
residences  are  irregularly  grouped  with  a  background 
of  well-kept  gardens.  There  is  a  normal  population  of 
12,000  in  this  valley  of  delight,  but  it  is  materially 
increased  during  the  summer  months.  There  are  8000 
Germans  in  the  town,  mainly  descendants  of  the  colony 
planted  on  the  imperial  estates  nearly  fifty  years  ago. 
Evidences  of  their  thrift  and  orderliness  abound.  Pe- 
tropolis  is  a  suburban  resort  that  steadily  grows  in 
attractiveness  while  the  traveller  lingers  in  it.  The 
gardens  are  its  chief  ornament,  and  in  their  tropical 
bloom  it  is  radiant  in  color  the  year  round.  The  roads 
are  equally  good  for  driving  or  riding,  and  the  rugged 
mountains  with  their  peaceful  summits  are  always  beau- 
tiful. One  may  well  believe  that  the  Emperor  often 
sighed  wearily,  during  two  years  of  exile,  for  a  glimpse 
of  this  lovely  valley,  endeared  to  him  by  the  associa- 
tions of  a  lifetime.  How  often  must  thoughts  of  his 
favorite  trees  and  flowers  and  of  the  retirement  of  his 
library  and  the  shaded  seats  in  his  beautiful  park  have 


48  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

come  back  to  him  in  his  melancholy  hours  like  light 
from  the  west  at  eventime !  Petropolis  faded  out  of 
his  sight  forever  on  that  gloomy  and  confused  morning 
when  he  hastened  to  Rio  de  Janeiro,  as  he  supposed,  to 
form  a  new  ministry  and  to  get  rid  of  two  or  three 
unpopular  leaders,  but  in  reality  to  sell  out  his  throne, 
and  then  repenting  of  his  bargain,  to  get  nothing  for  it 
but  exile  and  bitter  memories. 

Petropolis  is  the  city  of  the  Pedroes,  under  whose  pat- 
ronage it  has  been  steadily  improved  and  adorned.  Dom 
Pedro  I.  was  attracted  by  his  first  glimpse  of  the  valley 
in  1822,  and  induced  to  buy  a  large  tract  which  remained 
unoccupied  and  undeveloped  until  1843.  Then  the  Ger- 
man colony  was  brought  in,  and  Dom  Pedro  II.  began  to 
take  an  active  interest  in  the  estate.  The  palace  was 
built,  the  first  section  of  the  railway  was  laid,  a  good 
road  was  opened  to  the  foot  of  the  range,  parks  were 
reserved,  and  Petropolis  was  created.  All  the  associa- 
tions of  the  town  centred  around  the  imperial  family, 
who  loved  the  place  and  were  not  content  to  live  any- 
where else.  My  first  stroll  on  Christmas  morning  natu- 
rally led  to  the  palace  in  the  centre  of  a  spacious  park. 
The  gates  were  open,  and  a  winding  road,  fringed  with 
beds  of  roses  and  shaded  by  noble  trees,  brought  me  to 
the  main  entrance.  It  was  a  large  square  house  with 
two  stories  in  the  centre  and  two  long  wings  of  a  single 
tier  of  windows.  It  was  a  plain  structure  of  brick  and 
plaster,  painted  yellow  and  white.  It  was  a  homely 
palace  with  an  air  of  frugal  comfort  and  an  utter  absence 
of  display.  In  it  the  Emperor  lived  like  a  retired  country 
gentleman  of  bookish  tastes,  cherishing  his  flowers  and 
trees,  and,  with  a  pedantry  characteristic  of  him,  trans- 
lating Spanish  books  into  Portuguese,  and  exhausting  in 


PETROPOLIS    WITHOUT   AN   EMPEROR  49 

achievements  of  petty  scholarship  energies  which  ought 
to  have  been  employed  in  working  out  the  political  and 
social  problems  of  Brazil.  It  was  always  an  unsocial 
house.  The  Emj)eror  never  entertained  ministers  or 
friends.  A  new  representative  of  a  foreign  government 
was  admitted  to  a  brief  formal  audience  and  was  curtly 
bowed  out,  never  to  be  invited  again.  There  were  neither 
court  revels  nor  stately  banquets  in  those  gloomy  and  ill- 
furnished  halls.  The  Emperor  did  not  care  for  any  of 
these  things.  He  and  his  family  lived  there  with  extreme 
plainness,  —  almost  meanly.  No  other  monarcli  of  the 
first  rank  had  so  frugal  a  table,  or  employed  so  few 
servants,  or  made  less  show  of  his  dignity  and  power. 
The  equipment  of  the  place  was  in  keeping  with  these 
conditions  of  simplicity  and  retirement.  The  stables 
were  small,  for  the  Emperor  was  accustomed  to  drive 
behind  a  mule  team  in  a  shabby  barouche.  The  servants' 
quarters  were  bare  and  cheerless.  The  park,  with  its 
rare  shrubbery  and  its  wealth  of  flowers,  alone  showed 
signs  of  disregard  of  cheese-paring  economy. 

The  stables  and  the  servants'  lodgings  were  empty  on 
that  Christmas  morning.  The  great  doors  at  the  sides 
and  ends  of  the  palace  were  ostentatiously  sealed  with  a 
superscription  indicating  the  date,  November  18,  1889, 
and  the  police  authority  by  which  the  imperial  house  was 
closed.  The  curtains  and  shades  were  drawn  down  with 
unbroken  regularity.  The  shabby  furniture  was  still 
there,  and  the  wardrobes  and  libraries  were  stocked 
almost  as  they  were  on  the  morning  when  the  summons 
to  exile  was  received.  The  palace  and  grounds  had 
virtually  been  confiscated.  The  imperial  family  were 
allowed  two  years  in  which  to  dispose  of  their  property, 
but  by  decree  of  December  20, 1889,  they  were  banished 


60  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

from  Brazil  and  forbidden  to  own  real  estate  within  its 
borders.  This  was  the  penalty  imposed  for  the  Emperor's 
refusal  to  hold  to  the  bargain  by  which  he  sold  out  his 
throne.  The  palace  was  looked  upon  as  State  property. 
I  heard  men  calmly  discussing  the  practicability  of  form- 
ing a  stock  company,  purchasing  the  palace,  filling  up 
the  park  with  cottages,  and  working  up  what  Americans 
would  call  a  real  estate  boom  for  the  town.  So  soon 
passes  away  the  glory  of  royalty. 

Not  far  from  the  palace  was  the  mansion  formerly 
occupied  by  Princess  Isabel  and  Count  d'Eu.  It  too 
had  been  called  a  palace,  but  it  was  an  unpretentious 
villa,  large  enough  perhaps  for  the  Orleans  conception 
of  prudent  magnificence,  but  too  small  and  plain  to  be 
worthy  of  the  dignity  once  accorded  to  it.  Near  by  was 
the  crystal  palace,  built  by  the  Princess  for  flower  shows, 
but  seldom  used  for  any  purpose.  It  was  originally 
fashioned  of  glass,  but  was  subsequently  framed  with 
iron  at  the  sides  for  protection  against  rain.  In  front 
of  it  was  a  tall  cross,  formed  by  vines  planted  by  the 
Princess's  hand.  No  obtrusive  hand  had  touched  the 
cross,  but  the  crystal  palace,  with  its  park,  was  in  the 
market  ready  to  be  knocked  down  to  the  highest  bidder. 
The  Princess's  mansion  would  also  be  sold  to  the  first 
comer  willing  to  pay  well  for  it.  The  unfinished  church 
near  the  Emperor's  palace  was  also  to  be  put  on  the 
market.  This  was  the  structure  for  which  decorations 
and  titles  were  peddled  a  few  years  ago.  It  was  to  have 
been  a  noble  monument  to  the  Catholic  faith,  and  any- 
one who  offered  a  fair  subscription  to  the  building  fund 
was  compensated  with  a  title  or  decoration  of  some 
kind.  So  great  a  scandal  was  caused  that  the  work  was 
suspended,  although  the  Princess  had  set  her  heart  upon 


PETKOPOLIS   WITHOUT   AN   EMPEROR  51 

its  completion.  As  I  passed  the  unfinished  church  in 
my  morning  stroll,  I  was  gravely  informed  by  a  resident 
of  the  town  that  there  was  talk  of  altering  the  design 
and  converting  the  structure  into  a  casino. 

An  American  living  in  Brazil  gave  me  a  curious 
account  of  the  Emperor's  last  visit  to  the  rich  province 
of  Sao  Paulo.  Touched  by  the  signs  of  popular  affec- 
tion, the  aged  sovereign  was  led,  in  the  course  of  a  con- 
fidential talk  with  one  of  his  entertainers,  to  contrast 
his  own  popularity  with  the  coldness  and  indifference 
shown  to  other  members  of  his  household.  "I  shall 
reign  as  long  as  I  live,"  he  exclaimed,  "for  the  Brazil- 
ians know  me.  My  daughter,  perhaps.  My  grand- 
children, I  don't  know."  This  forecast  of  the  fortunes 
of  the  dynasty  was  one  of  many  indications  that  the 
Emperor,  while  he  did  not  expect  to  lose  his  throne  in 
his  old  age,  clearly  discerned  the  approaching  revolu- 
tion and  the  inevitable  establishment  of  a  republican 
form  of  government.  What  he  did  not  perceive  was 
the  superior  facility  with  which  revolutionists  could 
accomplish  their  purposes  while  he  was  on  the  throne. 
If  they  had  waited  until  he  was  in  his  grave,  they 
would  have  had  a  determined  Empress,  with  all  the 
resources  of  the  Church  to  deal  with. 

The  revolution  was  a  popular  revolt  not  only  against 
centralization  but  also  against  clericalism.  The  Crown 
Princess  combined  the  rugged,  robust  traits  of  the  Empe- 
ror's character  with  the  Neapolitan  religious  nature  of 
her  mother,  daughter  of  the  king  of  the  Two  Sicilies. 
Resolute,  ambitious,  and  naturally  fond  of  the  business 
of  state,  slie  had  a  passion  for  managing  and  overreach- 
ing politicians,  and  at  the  same  time  she  was  a  religious 
zealot  easily  controlled  by  spiritual  advisers.     The  vigor, 


52  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

inflexible  purpose,  and  self-reliance  which  she  displayed 
under  the  Regency  were  qualities  which  convinced 
thoughtful  Brazilians  that  Dom  Pedro's  successor  would 
not  be  a  weak  and  incapable  sovereign.  The  decree 
of  emancipation  signed  by  her  during  her  father's  ab- 
sence in  Europe  was  an  earnest  of  the  force  of  charac- 
ter which  she  would  disclose  upon  ascending  the  throne. 
With  this  masculine  vigor  was  coupled  piety  of  a  femi- 
nine type.  When  Louis  Philippe  was  affecting  Vol- 
tairean  ideas,  Queen  Marie  Amelie  was  scrupulously 
exact  in  her  devotions  and  attendance  at  mass,  and 
could  be  seen  on  Sundays  handing  about  collection- 
bags  in  her  parish  church.  The  Crown  Princess,  too, 
was  a  pious  and  devoted  daughter  of  the  Church.  Early 
in  life  she  was  brought  under  the  influence  of  religious 
advisers,  who  convinced  her  that  she  had  even  greater 
duties  to  perform  for  the  Church  than  for  the  Empire. 
As  time  went  on,  their  ascendency  over  her  mind  was 
completely  established.  As  Queen  Marie  Amelie  had 
humbled  herself,  so  she  was  wont  to  subject  herself  to 
degrading  discipline.  A  Brazilian  told  me  of  the  pain- 
ful sensation  created  in  Rio  de  Janeiro  when  it  became 
known  one  day  that  the  future  Empress  had  taken  a 
broom  and  swept  out  the  aisles  of  a  church  as  an  act 
of  penance.  This  incident,  if  the  details  were  not  ex- 
aggerated, disclosed  the  absolute  dominion  which  cleri- 
cal advisers  had  obtained  over  her. 

Other  evidence  was  not  wanting.  The  Emancipation 
Act  was  known  to  have  been  the  work  of  the  Jesuits 
rather  than  the  ministers  of  the  day.  The  Princess- 
Regent's  religious  guides,  knowing  that  she  and  her 
husband  were  unpopular,  perceived  the  advantage  of 
obtaining  for  her  the  credit  of  liberating  1,500,000  slaves. 


PETROPOLIS   WITHOUT   AN   EMPEROR  63 

The  Ministry,  being  aware  of  the  financial  embarrass- 
ment and  ruin  that  woukl  be  caused  if  slave-owners 
were  taken  unawares,  desired  to  defer  the  proclamation 
at  least  until  the  Emperor's  return.  The  Princess- 
Regent  preferred  to  act  upon  the  counsel  of  the  Cleri- 
calists. It  was  a  great  stroke  of  state,  designed  to  con- 
ciliate public  opinion  and  to  endear  the  future  sovereign 
to  the  hearts  of  the  people.  The  popular  rejoicings 
were  tumultuous  at  the  time  ;  but  the  slave-owners  were 
thrown  into  a  sullen,  resentful  temper,  which  subse- 
quently led  them  to  recognize  in  the  revolution  an  act 
of  retribution ;  and  the  sober  second  thought  of  the 
people  was  tinged  with  apprehension,  caused  by  so  un- 
mistakable a  revelation  of  the  domination  of  clericalism 
at  court. 

It  was  not  long  before  another  demonstration  of  cleri- 
cal influence  was  made.  A  measure  providing  for  the 
full  degree  of  religious  equality  and  toleration  guaran- 
teed by  the  imperial  constitution  was  introduced  and 
passed  by  the  Senate.  As  that  body  was  ultra-conserva- 
tive, and  recruited  mainly  from  the  circle  of  imperial 
partisans,  its  action  in  promptly  passing  the  bill  created 
general  astonishment,  and  the  concurrence  of  the  lower 
Chamber  was  taken  as  a  matter  of  course.  The  Crown 
Princess,  instigated  by  her  advisers,  at  once  busied  her- 
self in  obstructing  the  measure  and  preventing  its  enact- 
ment. She  went  from  house  to  house,  obtaining  signa- 
tures to  a  popular  protest  against  the  passage  of  the 
Religious  Liberty  Act.  Her  husband  and  many  court 
ladies  assisted  her  in  the  work,  and  before  many  days 
the  remonstrance  had  been  signed  by  over  14,000  women. 
The  country  was  dazed  by  this  remarkable  exhibition 
of  religious  bigotry.     It  served  the  immediate  purpose 


54  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

of  defeating  the  measure,  with  the  adventitious  aid  of 
a  group  of  obstructionists ;  but  it  also  furnished  over- 
whehning  evidence  of  the  ascendency  which  clerical 
intriguers  would  have  in  the  councils  of  the  next  reign. 
Roman  Catholicism  was  the  established  religion  of  the 
State ;  but  the  Brazilians  were  a  free  people,  jealous  of 
private  liberties,  and  disposed,  like  Gambetta,  to  cry 
out,  "  Clericalism  is  the  enemy." 

The  Crown  Princess's  headstrong  and  cajDricious  im- 
pulses were  strengthened  rather  than  controlled  by  her 
French  husband,  who,  in  the  popular  estimation,  was 
held  responsible  for  most  of  her  mistakes  and  errors  of 
judgment.  Count  d'Eu  had  the  fatal  Orleans  gift  of 
incurring  unpopularity.  From  his  first  appearance  in 
Brazil  he  had  been  regarded  as  a  foreigner  who  was 
accumulating  a  fortune  at  the  expense  of  the  natives. 
He  was  a  landowner  with  a  large  rent-roll,  invested 
his  money  well,  and  kept  the  bulk  of  his  fortune  in 
Europe.  There  was  no  more  effective  method  of 
impairing  his  popularity  among  the  masses  in  Brazil 
than  that  offered  by  the  exercise  of  ordinary  business 
prudence,  for  which  the  Orleans  princes  have  been  con- 
spicuous generation  after  generation. 

Petropolis  was  dazed  for  a  few  hours  on  that  eventful 
November  morning  when  the  shabby  state -coach  was 
driven  to  the  station  to  meet  a  special  train  for  the 
capital ;  but  when  the  tidings  came  that  the  imperial 
family  had  sailed,  and  that  the  jialaces  were  to  be 
closed,  there  was  a  reversion  to  more  cheerful  views  of 
the  future  of  the  town.  Men  told  me  soberly  that 
Petropolis  would  make  rapid  strides  in  wealth  and 
progress,  now  that  the  incubus  of  the  royal  family  had 
been  lifted  off.     Hundreds  of  new  houses  and  cottages 


PETROPOLIS    WITHOUT   AN    EMPEROR  55 

would  speedily  be  built,  and  all  the  conditions  of  a  met- 
ropolitan watering-place  would  be  supplied.  There 
would  be  a  music  hall,  a  casino,  new  hotels,  and 
building  enterprises  on  a  large  scale.  A  powerful 
impulse  would  be  imparted  to  the  fortunes  of  the 
town  by  the  imperial  clearance.  I  heard  a  resident 
talking  in  this  vein  for  an  hour,  almost  lamenting  that 
he  lacked  surplus  capital  required  for  investments. 
Such  is  the  way  of  the  world  when  the  occupation  of 
princes  has  gone. 

The  diplomatists  of  the  mountain  valley  were  pre- 
paring to  attend  a  reception  at  the  town  house  of  Count 
d'Eu  when  they  received  the  startling  tidings  of  the 
overthrow  of  the  Empire.  Invitations  had  been  sent 
for  the  evening  of  the  16th  of  November,  and  the  minis- 
ters representing  foreign  governments  were  expecting 
to  enjoy  these  unwonted  festivities.  The  reception  was 
indefinitely  postponed.  The  Emperor  was  virtually  a 
prisoner  in  his  dismal  town  palace.  Princess  Isabel 
was  preparing  for  her  European  journey.  Count  d'Eu 
was  meditating  over  the  fantastic  blunder  of  resigning 
his  military  commission  in  terms  which  practically  rec- 
ognized the  authority  of  the  Provisional  Government. 
The  ministers,  instead  of  enjoying  the  hospitality  of 
the  imperial  house,  were  consulting  hastily  together 
over  the  catastrophe  that  had  befallen  the  court  to 
which  they  were  accredited.  They  were  dazed  and 
bewildered  by  a  revolution  without  a  parallel  in  history 
for  the  feebleness  of  the  means  employed  for  accom- 
plishing momentous  results  and  the  powerlessness  of  a 
throne  to  protect  itself. 

Pathetic,  indeed,  was  the  story  which  was  told  in  Rio 
de  Janeiro  of  the  Emperor's  departure.      It  had  been 


56  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

arranged  that  he  should  leave  the  city  late  at  night  so 
as  to  avoid  the  risks  of  popular  reaction  and  excitement. 
Only  a  few  hours  had  been  allowed  for  the  preparations 
for  the  journey.  The  physician  and  several  ladies  had 
already  gone  out  to  a  gunboat  in  the  customs  barge. 
The  officer  who  was  to  conduct  the  Emperor,  the  Crown 
Princess,  and  Count  d'Eu  to  the  landing  drove  up  to 
the  palace.  The  Emperor  met  him  with  exclamations 
betokening  a  mind  disordered  with  grief.  "  I  had  hoped 
to  die  in  Brazil.  What  have  I  done  to  merit  this? 
What  crimes  have  my  family  committed  ?  I  tell  you, 
officer,  we  are  all  fools,  —  you  and  I  and  everybody ! 
We  do  not  know  what  we  are  about.  We  understand 
nothing,  —  except  that  Brazil  is  dear  to  us  !  "  With 
such  disjointed  exclamations  and  many  sobs  and  groans, 
the  Emperor  went  down  to  the  landing  and  stepped  for 
the  last  time  on  Brazilian  soil.  His  daughter  also 
asked,  with  choking  voice,  what  she,  or  her  father,  or 
her  husband  had  done  that  they  should  be  bundled 
off  ignominiously,  and  not  even  allowed  time  to  get 
together  their  travelling  wraps.  Count  d'Eu  alone 
retained  self-control,  and  busied  himself  in  calming  the 
court  ladies  who  were  accompanying  the  royal  fugitives. 
There  was  only  a  small  group  of  bystanders  at  the  land- 
ing as  they  embarked  on  a  small  steam  launch.  It  was 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  the  lights  of  the  city 
were  burning  low.  The  launch  conveyed  them  to  a 
gunboat,  which  lay  at  anchor  in  the  harbor.  At  ten 
o'clock  the  gunboat  went  out  to  meet  the  packet  Ala- 
gSas,  which  had  been  chartered  to  take  the  royal  exiles 
to  Lisbon.  The  ironclad  Riachuelo  accompanied  the 
steamer  to  Cape  Frio.  That  rocky  headland  was  the 
unhappy  monarch's  last  glimpse  of  his  dearly  loved 
country. 


PETKOPOLIS   WITHOUT   AN   EMPEROR  57 

One  Sunday  during  my  stay  in  Rio  de  Janeiro  the 
news  of  the  death  of  the  Empress  was  received.  It  did 
not  raise  a  ripple  of  excitement  in  the  Ouvidor.  The 
newsboys  hardly  made  use  of  the  announcement  in  their 
outcries  while  hawking  their  papers.  The  Empress  had 
been  eminent  for  her  domestic  qualities  and  for  her 
benefactions  to  deserving  charities,  and  had  been  uni- 
versally respected.  Her  death  aroused  no  feeling  of 
public  sympathy  for  the  misfortunes  of  the  imperial 
house.  It  made  less  impression  than  the  extremely 
favorable  mortality  statistics  for  the  week,  showing  only 
seven  deaths  from  yellow  fever.  It  was  plain  that  the 
people  of  Brazil  were  done  with  monarchy  for  all  time, 
and  that  everything  relating  to  the  imperial  family 
would  be  regarded  with  the  same  feeling  of  apathy 
which  had  characterized  the  revolution  at  every  stage. 


IV 
A  NEW   ERA   IN   BRAZIL 

AMERICAN       PRECEDENTS       FOLLOWED  AN       ENLIGHTENED 

SCHEME      OF     CONSTITUTIONAL    LAW  —  DEODORO's    DICTA- 
TORSHIP    AND    DOWNFALL DISESTABLISHMENT     OF     THE 

CHURCH   —  HOME        RULE  FINANCIAL       DISORDERS  A 

STRUGGLE    FROM    DARKNESS    TO   LIGHT 

The  Provisional  Government,  which  had  been  placed 
in  power  by  the  garrison  of  the  capital,  became,  on 
November  15,  1889,  the  sole  repository  of  political 
authority.  In  a  single  week  the  ground  was  cleared, 
and  all  the  institutions  of  the  Empire  were  swept 
away.  It  was  centralized  administration  reduced  to  a 
system  of  extraordinary  simplicity,  but  general  apathy 
prevailed,  since  it  was  known  that  a  commission  was 
embodying  the  decrees  of  the  self-organized  govern- 
ment in  a  constitution  which  would  ultimately  be  sub- 
mitted to  a  national  assembly  elected  by  the  people. 
This  commission  of  five  constitution-makers  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  decree  of  December  3,  1889.  It  deliv- 
ered the  text  of  the  Constitution  to  the  Provisional 
Government  on  May  30,  1890.  The  Constitution  was 
proclaimed  on  June  22,  1890,  but  was  declared  to  be  in 
force  only  so  far  as  it  related  to  the  election,  on  Sep- 
tember 15,  of  two  houses  of  Congress,  which  were  to  be 
invested  with  the  supreme  function  of  revising  and 
sanctioning  it. 
58 


A   NEW   ERA   IN   BRAZIL  59 

Although  the  French  was  the  only  literature  with 
which  the  educated  classes  were  conversant,  Washinp-- 
ton  rather  than  Paris  was  the  source  from  which  the 
Brazilian  law-makers  derived  their  inspiration.  The 
sharpest  possible  departure  from  French  procedure  is 
the  adoption  of  the  American  type  of  presidential, 
as  distinguished  from  cabinet  government.  The  ad- 
ministration is  not  left  dependent  upon  legislative 
divisions ;  there  is  no  premiership,  and  cabinet  minis- 
ters retain  their  portfolios  at  the  discretion  of  the 
Executive.  In  France,  the  deputies  aspire  to  give 
direction  to  the  administrative  impulses  as  well  as  to 
the  legislative  functions  of  the  nation.  In  Brazil,  it  is 
the  executive  administration,  and  not  the  national 
legislature,  which  is  strengthened  in  all  its  functions. 
The  President  was  elected  in  the  first  instance  by  the 
National  Assembly,  as  in  France ;  but  under  the  Consti- 
tution his  successors  will  be  chosen  by  popular  election 
through  the  instrumentality  of  an  electoral  college. 
The  Executive  derives  his  authority  from  the  nation, 
and  is  not  responsible  to  Congress  except  when  im- 
peached. With  a  complete  separation  of  legislative  and 
executive  functions  is  combined  the  same  system  of 
checks  and  balances  which  has  promoted  stability  and 
permanence  in  the  United  States. 

The  most  significant  departures  from  the  American 
plan  are  the  lengthening  of  the  official  terms,  the  sub- 
stitution of  educational  for  universal  suffrage,  and  the 
facility  with  which  the  Constitution  may  be  amended. 
Tlie  President's  term  is  six  years  and  he  cannot  be 
re-elected ;  a  senator's  is  nine  years,  and  a  representa- 
tive's is  three  years.  These  are  changes  for  the  better, 
since  the  excitement  and  turmoil  of  elections  are  ren- 


60  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

dered  less  frequent.  The  proportion  of  illiterate  classes 
to  the  whole  population  is  so  large  that  it  has  been 
necessary  to  protect  the  state  against  ignorance.  The 
electorate  includes  all  men  of  the  voting  age,  without 
distinctions  of  race  or  previous  condition  of  servitude, 
who  can  read  and  write.  While  educational  suffrage 
marks  a  distinct  advance  upon  universal  suffrage,  the 
facility  with  which  the  Constitution  may  be  amended 
involves  a  sacrifice  of  that  principle  of  wholesome  con- 
servatism which  has  contributed  to  the  permanency  of 
the  American  system.  In  Brazil  the  approval  of  the 
State  legislatures  is  dispensed  with  when  the  Constitu- 
tion is  revised.  The  legislatures  may  apply  for  and 
recommend  changes  in  the  organic  law,  but  Congress  is 
armed  with  supreme  power  to  decide  upon  the  pro- 
posals and  may  act  independently  of  such  initiative 
measures.  French  influence  and  example  have  pre- 
vailed in  simplifying  and  expediting  the  process  of 
constitutional  change. 

Brazil  had  secured  what  was  theoretically  the  best 
scheme  of  constitutional  republicanism  known  in  Tropi- 
cal America ;  but  a  nation  which  has  been  misgoverned 
for  generations  was  condemned  to  work  out  its  salvation 
in  fear  and  trembling.  There  was  not  a  republic  of 
Latin-American  blood  which  had  not  made  a  rough  copy 
of  the  American  Constitution;  and  in  every  one  of 
those  States,  after  the  patriotic  revolt  against  Spain, 
powerful  families,  military  dictators,  and  political  cabals 
had  usurped  from  time  to  time  the  supreme  functions  of 
democracy.  Presidents,  while  prohibited  from  serving 
a  second  term,  had  either  perpetuated  their  own  power 
or  had  promoted  the  ambitious  ends  of  ruling  families 
by  nominating  their  own  successors,  calling  the  military 


A   NEW    ERA   IN    BRAZIL  61 

garrisons  of  the  capital  to  their  aid  and  forcing  Congress 
or  the  electoral  colleges  to  ratify  their  decision.  With 
the  American  Constitution  as  the  common  basis  of 
republican  government  in  Spanish  America,  travesties  of 
political  liberty  and  constitutional  republicanism  had 
been  enacted  and  oligarchical  and  military  rule  had 
been  the  prevailing  type.  Brazil  had  entered  upon  the 
same  struggle  from  darkness  to  light. 

From  the  opening  of  the  National  Assembly  which 
had  been  elected  on  September  15,  1890,  there  were 
signs  of  an  irreconcilable  conflict  between  the  President 
and  the  legislators.  A  large  majority  of  the  senators 
and  deputies  had  been  chosen  under  pressure  exerted 
directly  or  indirectly  by  the  Provisional  Governments 
of  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  the  pro,vincial  capitals ;  but  when 
they  assembled  for  the  revision  of  the  Constitution  they 
were  fully  conscious  of  their  power.  Many  of  the  trained 
servants  of  the  imperial  civil  service,  having  made  their 
peace  with  the  revolutionary  government,  reappeared 
in  public  life,  and  from  the  floors  of  Congress  displayed 
a  determination  to  control  the  departments  of  adminis- 
tration. For  several  generations  lawyers,  journalists, 
and  educated  men,  who  were  not  planters,  had  con- 
sidered it  necessary  to  earn  a  living  through  political 
employment.  They  could  not  afford  to  lose  their  occu- 
pation, but  were  anxious  to  return  to  office  to  play  the 
old  games  of  political  combination  and  patronage.  As 
they  were  all  out  of  office,  they  naturally  formed  the 
nucleus  of  an  opposition  party  and  were  reinforced  by 
republicans  who  were  discontented  with  their  relations 
with  the  central  administration.  Before  the  revision  of 
the  Constitution  was  completed  on  February  24,  1891, 
the  opposition  groups  had  secured  a  majority  in  each 


62  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

house.  General  Deodoro  da  Fonseca  was  elected  to 
the  presidency,  but  only  by  a  small  majority,  129  votes 
being  cast  for  him  and  97  for  Dr.  Prudente  de  Moraes, 
president  of  the  Congress.  Of  the  five  scattering  votes, 
two  were  cast  for  General  Floriano  Peixoto,  who  was 
immediately  elected  vice-President.  Deodoro  would 
probably  have  been  defeated,  if  there  had  not  been 
general  apprehension  of  military  intervention  and  the 
arrest  of  his  principal  opponents. 

The  provisional  ministry  had  been  reorganized  in 
the  meantime,  but  the  constitutional  President  de- 
clined either  to  renew  their  appointments  or  to  submit 
their  nominations  to  the  approval  of  Congress.  This 
uncompromising  assertion  of  his  independence  of  the 
legislators  excited  criticism.  Official  interference  with 
the  freedom  of  the  press  was  also  angrily  resented. 
The  opposition  to  the  government  culminated  in  the 
passage  of  three  measures  directed  against  the  Presi- 
dent. 

The  first  of  these  declared  that  the  duties  of  minister 
of  State  were  incompatible  with  the  exercise  of  other 
functions.  This  was  a  blow  aimed  directly  against 
obnoxious  ministers,  and  especially  Lucena,  who  was 
governor  of  the  State  of  Pernambuco  and  a  judge  of 
the  Supreme  Court.  This  bill,  after  passing  both 
houses,  was  vetoed  by  the  President  on  the  ground 
that  it  deprived  him  of  his  constitutional  right  of 
choosing  his  ministers.  The  senate  passed  it  a  second 
time,  by  a  vote  of  29  to  15,  one  vote  short  of  the  con- 
stitutional requirement  of  two-thirds.  In  order  to 
secure  the  requisite  majority,  the  vote  of  the  Presi- 
dent's brother,  who  was  governor  of  Alagoas,  was 
thrown  out,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  a  double  office- 


A   NEW   ERA   IN   BRAZIL  63 

holder  and  disqualified  from  taking  part  in  the  division. 
The  President  also  vetoed  a  bill  for  limiting  the  powers 
of  governors  in  States  which  had  not  been  organized 
on  the  basis  of  home  rule.  On  October  29  he  vetoed 
as  unconstitutional  a  third  measure,  defining  the  crimes 
for  which  the  Executive  was  liable  to  impeachment. 
This  bill  was  passed  over  the  veto  by  the  senate  on 
November  2,  and  subsequently  by  the  chamber  of 
deputies.  It  was  at  once  apparent  that  either  the 
President  must  submit  to  impeachment  proceedings  in 
a  senate  where  two-thirds  of  the  members  were  hostile 
to  him,  or  else  dissolve  Congress  and  establish  a  mili- 
tary dictatorship.  After  hesitating  for  twenty-four 
hours  and  receiving  from  the  Adjutant-General  assur- 
ances of  the  loyalty  of  the  army  to  his  personal  for- 
tunes, he  took  up  arms  against  Congress. 

On  November  4,  1891,  a  manifesto  was  published, 
dissolving  Congress,  and  proclaiming  martial  law  in  the 
federal  district  and  in  the  city  of  Nictheroy  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  bay  from  Rio  de  Janeiro.  The 
nation  was  called  upon  to  choose  representatives  to  a 
new  Congress,  which  should  be  empowered  to  revise 
the  Constitution  under  conditions  to  be  made  known  in 
the  decree  of  convocation.  In  a  manifesto  issued  to  the 
nation,  the  President  reviewed  the  constitutional  con- 
troversies which  had  arisen  and  accused  the  legislators 
of  attempting  to  paralyze  the  administration  and  to 
compass  the  overthrow  of  the  Republic.  As  the  houses 
of  Congress  were  not  allowed  to  assemble,  there  was  no 
counter-demonstration.  Most  of  the  States  acquiesced 
in  the  usurpation,  but  Rio  Grande  do  Sul  openly 
revolted  against  it,  organized  a  revolutionary  govern- 
ment, and  in  twenty  days  had  a  force  of  50,000  soldiers 


64  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

under  arms  and  in  readiness  to  defend  the  State  and  to 
take  the  field  against  the  Dictator.  A  similar  move- 
ment in  Sao  Paulo  was  suppressed  only  by  rigorous 
action  of  the  governor ;  and  there  were  similar  signs 
of  disaffection  in  Bahia,  Para,  and  other  States.  The 
garrison  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  weakened  by  the  with- 
drawal of  many  battalions  for  service  elsewhere,  was 
influenced  by  popular  disapproval  of  the  dictatorship. 
The  naval  officers,  headed  by  Admirals  Wandelkolk 
and  Costodio  de  Mello,  after  consulting  secretly  with 
congressional  leaders,  planned  a  demonstration  against 
Deodoro.  The  government  placed  Admiral  Wandel- 
kolk and  ex-Minister  Bocayuva  under  arrest,  but 
Admiral  Costodio  de  Mello  escaped  to  the  fleet,  pre- 
vailed upon  the  officers  to  support  him,  and  brought 
three  vessels  of  war  in  line  of  action  off  the  city  on 
November  23.  President  Deodoro,  in  order  to  avert 
the  bombardment  of  the  capital,  resigned  his  office. 
The  vice-President,  General  Floriano  Peixoto,  suc- 
ceeded him,  reorganized  the  ministry,  and  called  upon 
Congress  to  reassemble.  This  second  revolution  was 
accomplished  without  bloodshed  and  without  scenes  of 
disorder,  except  the  destruction  of  two  newspaper 
offices.  With  the  overthrow  of  Deodoro  there  was  a 
return  to  the  constitutional  system. 

Dependence  upon  military  force  and  contempt  for 
civilians  in  public  life  have  been  characteristic  features 
of  the  political  history  of  Spanish  America.  In  the 
early  days  of  colonization  and  conquest  military  adven- 
turers were  constantly  complaining  of  the  disturbances 
and  intrigues  caused  by  lawyers  and  Indian-reforming 
monks.  Cortes  in  Mexico,  Pizarro  in  Peru,  and  the 
governors  of   Hispaniola,  Cartagena,  and   Panama  re- 


A  NEW    ERA    IN    BRAZIL  65 

peatedly  besought  the  home  governments  to  recall  the 
lawyers  and  to  allow  the  soldiers  to  rule  the  new  pos- 
sessions Avithout  interference  from  civilians.  The  same 
jealousy  of  lawyers  and  legislators  has  been  revealed  in 
nearly  every  Spanish-American  country  since  the  wars 
for  independence.  Ordinarily  the  Presidents  have  been 
generals;  the  garrisons  have  supported  them;  and  when 
lawyers  and  politicians  have  harassed  them  in  national 
legislatures,  there  have  been  usurpations  of  power,  mili- 
tary dictatorships,  and  suspensions  of  constitutional  law. 
When  Deodoro,  after  struggling  for  twelve  months  with 
the  factions  in  Congress,  closed  the  doors  of  Sao  Chris- 
tovao  Palace  and  proclaimed  a  dictatorship,  he  had 
recourse  to  a  familiar  expedient  of  Latin-American 
civilization.  The  speedy  collapse  of  his  administration, 
when  it  was  wholly  dependent  upon  military  force,  was 
a  good  augury  for  the  future  of  Brazil.  It  disclosed  at 
once  the  weakness  of  the  army  by  which  the  Empire 
had  been  overthrown  and  the  strength  and  stability  of 
the  constitutional  system. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  Republic,  the  Provisional 
Ministry  were  unable  to  agree  upon  the  radical  policy 
of  disestablishing  the  Church.  They  decreed  civil  mar- 
riage, but  debated  for  several  weeks  the  expediency  of 
cutting  off  the  appropriations  for  the  support  of  the 
clergy.  Ruy  Barbosa  in  conversation  with  me  intimated 
that  a  compromise  was  to  be  brought  about,  by  which 
the  salaries  of  the  clergy  would  be  paid  while  the  incum- 
bents of  parishes  lived,  but  that  no  new  stipends  would 
be  provided.  Fortunately  for  Brazil  there  was  no  com- 
promise of  the  disestablishment  question.  Constant's 
ideas  prevailed,  and  the  Church  was  separated  from  the 
state.     This  was  a  radical  measure  for  disarming  and 


66  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

suppressing  clericalism.  Under  the  Constitution  no 
religious  denomination  was  permitted  to  hold  relations 
of  dependence  upon,  or  alliance  with,  the  federal  or 
State  governments.  The  salaries  of  the  clergy,  which 
were  formerly  paid  from  the  national  treasury,  were 
suspended,  and  the  States  were  prohibited  from  estab- 
lishing, subsidizing,  or  embarrassing  the  exercise  of 
religious  worship.  Every  church  was  made  free  in  the 
free  State.  Civil  marriage  was  recognized  as  essential. 
Cemeteries  were  subjected  to  municipal  control.  In- 
struction in  State  schools  and  public  institutions  was 
secularized,  and  municipalities  were  prohibited  from 
modifying  this  rule.  The  company  of  Jesuits  was 
excluded  from  the  country,  and  the  founding  of  new 
convents  and  monastic  orders  was  forbidden.  B}^  these 
and  other  drastic  regulations  in  the  fundamental  law, 
the  domination  of  the  Church  in  political  affairs  was 
completely  shattered.  Brazil  in  emancipating  itself 
from  clericalism  began  very  far  in  advance  of  the  goal 
which  had  been  reached  after  protracted  agitation  by 
Chili,  the  most  progressive  State  in  South  America.  If 
a  stagnant  country  has  required  thorough  processes  of 
revolution,  so  has  the  lethargic  Church.  Under  the 
Republic  there  is  promise  of  resurrection  among  the 
crumbling  tombs  of  national  religion. 

Education  is  what  is  needed  for  the  leavening  of  the 
whole  lump  of  Brazilian  ignorance  and  superstition. 
In  some  of  the  States  efforts  have  already  been  put 
forth  to  render  elementary  education  compulsory,  and 
liberal  sfrants  have  been  made  for  the  maintenance  of 
schools  ;  but  in  the  remaining  States  there  are  the  most 
inadequate  provisions  for  education.  According  to  one 
of  tlie  latest  official  returns  there  are  between  8,000,000 


A   NEW   ERA   IN   BRAZIL  67 

and  9,000,000  men,  women,  and  children  in  Brazil,  who 
can  neither  read  nor  write.  Until  this  illiteracy  is 
stamj^ed  out,  there  can  neither  be  a  permanent  religious 
revival  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  nor  any  marked 
progress  of  Protestantism  with  its  open  Bible.  The 
budgets  voted  by  the  chambers  have  been  appropriated 
mainly  for  higher  education  for  the  medical,  law,  poly- 
technic, mining,  military,  and  naval  schools,  which  are 
to  be  visited  in  Rio  de  Janeiro.  Not  one  of  these  insti- 
tutions is  worthy  of  the  national  capital.  There  is 
not  a  university  in  Brazil,  nor  is  there  a  single  tech- 
nical school  of  high  rank.  Private  benefactions  have 
been  swallowed  up  by  innumerable  hospitals  and  asy- 
lums, many  of  them  now  out  of  date  and  useless,  while 
institutions  of  learning  have  not  been  founded.  If 
there  be  such  backwardness  in  promoting  the  higher 
schools,  what  must  be  the  state  of  primary  education 
when  dependent  upon  the  exhausted  exchequers  of  the 
overtaxed  provinces  ? 

Perhaps  the  most  hopeful  sign  for  the  cause  of 
progress  and  religion  is  the  adoption  of  educational 
suffrage  as  the  condition  of  citizenship.  This  will 
operate  in  two  ways :  it  will  create  a  general  desire 
for  education  as  a  means  to  the  attainment  of  the 
rights  of  citizenship ;  and  it  will  compel  the  governing 
classes  in  all  the  provinces  to  multiply  schools  and  to 
support  them  liberally.  Negroes  or  Portuguese,  who 
do  not  themselves  read  and  write,  will  take  pains  to 
make  voters  of  their  children.  The  non-voting  popu- 
lation will  insist  upon  having  schools  brought  within 
their  reach,  and  provincial  assemblies  will  make  more 
generous  grants  for  primary  education  than  have  ever 
been  sanctioned.    Under  the  Republic,  illiteracy,  which 


68  TKOPICAL  AMERICA 

is  now  a  source  of  national  reproach,  will  inevitably 
decline.  There  will  be  more  light  in  a  benighted  land. 
With  light  there  will  come  a  religious  quickening  in 
churches  which  now  look  like  the  tombs  of  a  dead 
faith. 

While  the  rights  of  national  administration  and  leg- 
islation are  reserved  for  the  Executive  and  Congress, 
each  province  of  the  old  Empire  is  armed  by  the  Con- 
stitution with  administrative  and  legislative  autonomy 
as  a  sovereign  State.  The  relations  between  the  fed- 
eral  government  and  the  States  are  determined  with 
such  precision  as  to  preclude  secession,  nullification,  or 
states  rights  agitation.  At  the  same  time  home  rule  is 
guaranteed  by  the  Constitution.  The  federal  govern- 
ment cannot  intervene  in  the  internal  affairs  of  the 
States,  except  to  repel  invasion,  to  maintain  the  re- 
publican federative  form  of  administration,  to  restore 
public  order  upon  requisition  from  the  local  authorities, 
and  to  secure  the  execution  of  laws  of  Congress  and 
compliance  with  federal  sentences.  The  National  Gov- 
ernment has  exclusive  power  to  decree  import  taxes ; 
entrance,  clearance,  and  port  dues ;  postal  and  tele- 
graph contributions  ;  the  maintenance  of  custom-houses ; 
and  the  establishment  of  banks  of  issue.  It  exclusively 
pertains  to  the  States  to  impose  taxes  upon  landed 
property.  Within  these  lines  and  subject  to  some 
exemptions  respecting  ecclesiastical  matters,  each  State 
has  a  right  to  adopt  a  constitution  in  harmony  with 
the  federal  Constitution,  to  elect  its  own  executive  and 
legislature,  and  to  exercise  all  the  functions  of  self- 
government. 

The  States  remained  under  their  provisional  govern- 
ments until  the  Constitution  was  adopted.     Sao  Paulo, 


A   NEW   ERA   IN   BRAZIL  69 

Par4,  Bahia,  Pernambnco,  and  other  States,  were  reor- 
ganized during  1891  with  constitutions  of  their  oAvn,  pro- 
viding for  the  election  of  their  own  governors  and  legis- 
latures, and  autonomy  for  municipalities.  While  the 
most  important  provinces  were  converted  speedily  into 
self-governing  States  ruled  by  their  own  citizens,  others 
remained  in  a  transition  stage  under  Deodoro's  admin- 
istration. Their  condition  was  hardly  distinguishable 
from  that  of  old-time  provinces  under  the  Empire,  since 
they  were  governed  by  partisans  of  Deodoro.  This  was 
one  of  the  main  grievances  debated  in  Congress.  In 
many  of  the  States  the  popular  idea  of  home  rule  is  the 
right  of  the  leading  men  in  the  capital  to  dismiss  a 
governor  and  to  set  up  a  provisional  government 
whenever  they  choose  to  order  a  political  change. 
There  have  been  several  revolutions  of  this  order,  and 
the  National  Government,  not  having  facilities  for  rapid 
transportation  of  troops  to  remote  provinces,  is  powerless 
to  prevent  them.  This  distribution  of  power  among  the 
States  threatens  to  be  detrimental  to  the  stability  of  the 
National  Government.  Every  State  government  is  at 
the  mercy  of  political  mobs  and  discontented  garrisons. 
The  Provisional  Government  was  singularly  success- 
ful at  the  outbreak  of  the  revolution  in  maintaining 
the  financial  credit  of  the  country.  Business  steadily 
improved  during  1890,  and  a  large  coffee  crop  com- 
manding exceptionally  high  prices  insured  favorable 
rates  of  exchange.  When  the  general  elections  oc- 
curred and  the  Constitution  was  revised  and  accepted 
by  Congress,  the  feeling  of  business  buoyancy  which 
had  prevailed,  in  spite  of  political  uncertainty,  created 
a  strong  speculative  movement.  During  1891  hundreds 
of   l)anks  were  organized   and  mining   companies    and 


70  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

industrial  syndicates  formed.  Appeals  were  made  to 
the  government  for  concessions  and  contracts  on  all 
sides,  and  capital  was  subscribed  for  innumerable  new 
enterprises.  Many  of  these  projects  were  speculative 
and  visionary.  Under  an  unwise  decree,  for  which 
Barbosa  was  responsible,  banks  were  organized  by  the 
hundred,  and  government  concessions  and  contracts 
were  granted  most  recklessly  and  often  under  condi- 
tions which  involved  official  corruption.  A  deprecia- 
tion of  the  currency  and  an  impairment  of  public  credit 
followed. 

One  of  the  most  encouraging  signs  was  a  marked 
increase  in  immigration.  In  1889  the  number  of  immi- 
grants arriving  in  Brazil  was  65,161;  in  1890  it  was 
109,000.  This  increase  not  only  served  to  convince 
Brazilians  that  it  was  the  Empire  which  had  repelled 
Europeans  from  their  shores  and  caused  them  to  swarm 
into  the  Plate  republics,  but  also  encouraged  the 
republican  government  to  sanction  land  grants  and 
immigration  schemes  on  a  scale  for  which  even  the 
Argentine  furnished  no  precedent.  Brazil,  during  the 
first  year  of  the  Republic,  became  a  speculative  pande- 
monium. It  was  menaced  during  the  second  year  with 
all  the  evils  of  financial  disorder  and  collapse  of  credit 
which  had  overwhelmed  the  Argentine. 

The  magnitude  of  these  speculative  schemes  for 
developing  the  resources  of  Brazil  may  be  readily  illus- 
trated. The  area  covered  by  210  land  grants  was 
119,887  square  miles,  an  extent  of  territory  nearly 
equal  to  that  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  This 
represented  national  domain,  which  was  given  away  to 
land  speculators  and  government  jobbers.  During  the 
same   period   contracts   were    nominally  made    for   the 


A   NEW   ERA   IN   BRAZIL  71 

introduction  of  1,415,750  families  from  Europe.  This 
implied  a  prospective  addition  of  over  7,000,000  to  the 
population.  The  railway  grants  Avere  equally  reckless, 
and  hundreds  of  syndicates  of  all  kinds  were  furnished 
with  monetary  guarantees  from  the  treasury.  The 
country  was  flooded  with  paper  money  issued  by  hun- 
dreds of  corporations  under  a  free  banking  law  similar 
to  that  of  the  Argentine,  which  had  produced  most 
disastrous  results.  Traffic  in  government  concessions 
and  sjoeculation  in  the  shares  of  new  railway,  mining, 
and  industrial  enterprises  engrossed  the  attention  of 
active  politicians  and  practical  business  men.  It  was 
a  delirious  time,  when  all  classes  were  overtrading  and 
gambling  upon  the  material  prosperity  which  was  to 
follow  the  introduction  of  republican  institutions. 
Every  day  brought  with  it  a  fresh  batch  of  government 
concessions  and  guarantees  for  colonies  in  the  wilder- 
ness, new  cities  in  unexplored  regions,  and  ports  in 
uninhabited  sections  of  the  coast.  It  was  the  fatal 
Argentine  fever,  and  it  was  both  malignant  and  con- 
tagious. 

If  Brazil  has  been  saved  from  the  financial  revulsions 
which  seemed  to  be  impending  in  1891,  its  good  for- 
tune is  to  be  attributed  to  the  warning  which  foreign 
investors  had  received  in  the  Argentine.  When  the 
speculators  and  politicians  had  locked  up  their  own 
capital  in  visionary  undertakings,  they  could  not  find 
a  market  abroad  for  shares  in  their  new  companies. 
English  investors  whose  hands  had  been  badly  burned 
on  the  Plate  looked  with  suspicion  upon  the  glowing 
prospectuses  and  refused  to  believe  that  the  capital 
subscribed  represented  hard  cash.  They  had  already 
invested   from   1350,000,000  to  1400,000,000    in  Bra- 


72  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

zilian  securities,  and  they  prudently  refrained  from 
increasing  their  holdings.  As  foreign  capital  was 
withlield,  the  native  speculative  companies  soon  lan- 
guished from  sheer  inanition.  Disordered  conditions 
of  exchange,  an  inflated  currency,  and  higher  prices 
than  had  ever  before  been  known  combined  to  produce 
a  reaction.  Financial  reform  became  the  crowning 
issue  of  the  day. 

There  are  two  phrases  which  are  constantly  heard  in 
Brazil.  One  is,  "Wait  a  little,"  and  the  other  is,  "Be 
patient."  Each  reveals  a  national  habit  of  deliberation 
and  procrastination  formed  under  the  influence  of  an 
enervating  climate.  From  race  instinct  Brazilians  have 
adapted  themselves  slowly  and  mechanically  to  the 
altered  political  and  social  conditions  under  the  Repub- 
lic. As  they  are  never  known  either  to  make  haste  in 
business  or  pleasure  or  to  be  anxious  for  the  morrow, 
they  have  not  expected  republican  institutions  to  ac- 
complish at  once  the  work  of  national  regeneration. 
They  have  been  content  to  wait  a  little  and  to  be 
patient.  This  is  a  quality  of  mind  which  has  recon- 
ciled them  to  a  gradual  and  laborious  fulfilment  of 
expectations  of  material  progress  inspired  by  the  over- 
throw of  the  Empire.  They  believe  that  they  have 
entered  upon  a  future  of  brilliant  promise.  They  know 
that  Brazil  is  a  country  whose  resources  are  practically 
inexhaustible ;  that  there  is  hardly  a  plantation  or  forest 
product  of  tropical  climes  which  cannot  be  raised  under 
the  most  favorable  conditions  on  their  soil ;  that  their 
mountains  are  rich  in  iron,  lead,  gold,  and  precious 
stones ;  that  their  river  system  is  unparalleled,  and  that 
they  have  all  the  requirements  for  making  a  wealthy  and 
powerful   nation.     The    Provisional    Government   was 


A   NEW   ERA   IN   BRAZIL  73 

irregular  in  its  processes  and  arbitrary  in  its  decrees, 
but  it  opened  a  way  for  the  industrial  development  of 
the  most  wonderful  country  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Faith  in  the  future  of  Brazil  has  reconciled  the  people 
to  disordered  finances,  temporary  military  usurpation, 
and  constitutional  anomalies.  They  have  consoled 
themselves  with  the  reflection  that  democratic  and 
industrial  progress  has  been  retarded  there,  as  else- 
where in  Latin  America,  by  prevailing  conditions  of 
popular  ignorance,  but  that  republican  institutions  in 
the  end  will  inevitably  accomplish  their  perfect  work. 


ENTRANCE   OF   THE   PLATE 

HOW     A     COMMERCIAL     EMPIRE     HAS     BEEN"     WON HUMBLE 

PIE    FOR    AN    AMERICAN EUROPEAN    MARITIME     ENTER- 
PRISE  MONTEVIDEO  AND   ITS  SUBURBS NIGHT   PASSAGE 

TO    BUENOS    AYRES 

An  American  wlio  visits  the  Brazilian  coast  towns 
and  continues  the  voyage  to  the  river  Plate  can  hardly 
fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  commercial  enterprise  of 
maritime  Europe.  An  empire  lost  in  the  northern 
hemisphere  has  been  replaced  by  another  gained  during 
the  present  century.  A  hundred  years  ago  the  Euro- 
pean was  driven  from  the  American  colonies  and  com- 
pelled to  resign  control  over  a  continental  domain  which 
is  now  the  industrial  empire  of  a  free  people  number- 
ing 63,000,000.  What  was  lost  in  the  North  has  been 
regained  in  the  South.  Latin  America  is  the  commer- 
cial empire  of  the  maritime  nations  of  Europe.  They 
hold  two-thirds  of  the  national  debt  of  Brazil.  They 
have  supplied  a  large  share  of  the  capital  required  for 
railway,  banking,  and  industrial  enterprises  there. 
They  have  organized  the  internal  trade  of  the  Amazon 
valley.  They  have  established  their  ascendency  in 
the  coast  towns  and  made  the  import  trade  their  own. 
They  control  the  commerce  of  the  Plate  countries  at 
Montevideo  and  Baenos  Ayres.  The  weight  of  their 
74 


ENTRANCE   OF   THE   PLATE  75 

capital,  maritime  enterprise,  and  industrial  skill  is  felt 
all  the  way  from  the  Straits  of  Magellan  to  the  Isthmus. 
South  America  is  tenanted  by  proud  nations,  jealous  of 
their  political  liberties ;  but  it  is  the  commercial  depen- 
dency of  maritime  Europe. 

I  went  down  the  coast  from  Rio  de  Janeiro  in  the 
steamer  Britannia  with  a  merry  company  of  English 
travellers  who  were  bound  for  Patagonia,  the  Falkland 
Islands,  and  Chili.  Most  of  them  were  sheep-farmers, 
and  they  told  me  that  the  capital  required  for  opening 
Patagonia  on  both  the  Argentine  and  Chilian  coasts  was 
supplied  from  England.  The  bleak  Falkland  Islands 
are  tenanted  by  Scotchmen,  who  have  opened  large 
sheep-farms  there.  This  is  the  southernmost  European 
colony  in  the  New  World,  and  while  it  has  a  popula- 
tion of  only  five  thousand  the  English  are  there  to 
make  what  they  can  out  of  it.  As  we  were  smoking 
and  chatting  together  from  day  to  day,  the  ship  passed 
the  entrance  to  the  lower  coffee  belt  at  Santos  and 
coasted  along  three  of  the  southern  provinces  of  Brazil : 
Parand,  a  State  as  large  as  Kansas ;  then  Santa  Catha- 
rina,  as  small  as  Maine;  and  at  last  Rio  Grande  do 
Sul,  equal  to  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  combined. 
The  lofty  sierras  of  the  coffee  belt  were  reduced  to 
gently  sloping  hills,  and  a  rolling  prairie  offered  rich 
pasturage  for  cattle  and  sheep.  The  list  of  agricul- 
tural products,  which  began  under  the  equator  with 
rubber  and  included  sugar,  cotton,  tobacco,  and  coffee 
in  the  direction  of  the  tropic,  was  completed  with 
wool,  hides,  and  wheat  on  the  borders  of  the  temperate 
zone.  Beyond  Rio  Grande  do  Sul  and  Porto  Alegre 
was  the  gateway  of  the  Plate,  the  majestic  river  en- 
trance to  the  three  republics  of  the  South,  whose  indus- 


76  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

tries  were  also  almost  wholly  agricultural.  Europe 
directs  and  controls  their  trade  and  supplies  them  with 
manufactures  of  its  own  as  completely  as  it  monopolizes 
the  commerce  of  the  Brazilian  seaboard  from  the  shift- 
ing delta  of  the  Amazon  to  the  shingles  and  sand 
dunes  of  Rio  Grande  do  Sul. 

How  has  this  commercial  empire,  which  replaces  what 
the  English  lost  a  century  ago  in  North  America,  what 
the  French  sold  for  a  song  in  Louisiana,  and  what  the 
Spanish  frittered  away  by  misgovernment  in  the  far 
South,  been  regained  by  modern  Europe  ?  The  secret  of 
the  establishment  of  European  commercial  supremacy 
in  that  part  of  the  world  is  the  intelligence  with  which 
the  shipping  and  mercantile  interests  of  maritime  na- 
tions have  been  fostered  and  developed.  The  American 
Civil  War  marked  the  turning-point  in  the  substitu- 
tion of  steam  for  sail  power  in  the  transportation  of 
ocean  freis^ht.  About  1865  the  first  English  mail 
steamer  was  running  into  Montevideo  with  a  govern- 
ment subsidy.  At  the  end  of  twenty  years  there  were 
618  European  steamers,  with  a  tonnage  of  900,000,  enter- 
ing the  same  port,  a  tonnage  nearly  three  times  as  great 
as  that  of  the  sailing  fleet.  At  the  end  of  1888  the  ton- 
nage had  risen  to  1,264,919,  with  more  than  two 
steamers  a  day.  This  marked  the  triumph  of  superior 
maritime  enterprise.  While  the  United  States  has 
been  neglecting  its  shipping  interests  and  doing  noth- 
ing to  restore  its  commercial  marine  on  the  high  seas, 
Europe  has  been  building  and  manning  merchant  fleets 
by  which  an  empire  could  be  conquered. 

If  any  American,  weak  and  lowly  in  spirit,  have  a 
voracious  appetite  for  humble  pie,  let  him  take  passage 
for  the  Plate.     He  will  find  Montevideo  and  Buenos 


ENTRANCE   OP   THE   PLATE  77 

Ayres  the  most  enterprising  cities  of  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere, and  in  each  harbor  he  will  see  a  magnificent 
merchant  fleet,  representing  every  maritime  nation  ex- 
cept his  own.  He  will  recognize  off  the  water-front  of 
Montevideo  the  flags  of  England,  France,  Germany, 
Italy,  Spain,  Belgium,  and  Brazil,  flying  from  steam- 
ships lying  at  anchor,  and  he  will  see  a  swarm  of  Nor- 
wegian, Danish,  English,  Italian,  and  German  sailing 
vessels ;  but  he  will  look  in  vain  for  the  American 
flag,  unless  he  catches  a  glimpse,  as  I  did,  of  the  colors 
of  some  poor  old  war  ship  like  the  Tallapoosa.  That 
battered  hulk  was  in  the  harbor  when  I  arrived  and 
another  relic  of  old-time  naval  architecture,  the  Rich- 
mond., was  on  the  way  from  Bahia  to  the  South  Atlantic 
station.  These  ships  were  needed,  perhaps,  to  complete 
the  exhibition  of  American  degeneracy  in  the  maritime 
world. 

I  was  fully  prepared,  after  landing  and  passing  the 
customs  line,  for  the  look  of  bewilderment  on  the  face 
of  the  genial  proprietor  of  the  French  hotel,  when  he 
was  asked  to  direct  me  to  the  American  consulate.  He 
did  not  know  where  it  was,  although  it  was  found 
subsequently  only  a  few  blocks  from  the  hotel.  He 
was  too  polite  to  be  offensive  and  apparently  was  un- 
willing to  confess  that  he  was  unaware  of  the  presence 
of  any  American  functionary  in  the  city.  There  were 
similar  signs  of  incredulity  and  bewilderment  in  other 
faces  when  I  sought  in  the  streets  for  pilotage  to  the 
consulate.  Shop-keepers  doing  business  within  a  block 
of  the  office  had  never  heard  of  an  American  consul. 
Apparently  people  in  Montevideo  vaguely  regard  the 
United  States  as  being  a  curious  country,  having  a 
place   somewhere    on   the    map   of   the  western   hemi- 


78  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

sphere.  They  think  of  it  very  much  as  children  in 
American  schools  idly  conjecture  what  the  ice-fields 
surrounding  the  North  Pole  are  like.  Europe  sends 
out  its  merchant  fleets  to  their  harbor  to  stock  their 
shops  and  houses  with  everything  which  human  inge- 
nuity can  devise  for  promoting  comfortable  or  luxurious 
living.  The  United  States  no  longer  contributes  freely, 
as  in  the  olden  time,  its  Yankee  notions.  American 
ships  enter  the  harbor  so  infrequently  that  the  children 
of  Montevideo  are  growing  up  in  ignorance  of  the 
mighty  industrial  nation  that  styles  itself  "The  Grand 
Republic." 

At  the  close  of  the  American  Civil  War  two  ocean 
steamers  entered  Montevideo  in  the  course  of  a 
month.  Now  there  are  two  arrivals  every  day  the 
year  round,  exclusive  of  river  craft  and  coasters.  At 
Buenos  Ayres  there  has  been  an  even  greater  develop- 
ment of  commerce.  The  tide  of  immigration  rises 
higher  every  year,  and  the  Argentine  is  filling  up  with 
European  settlers.  It  is  the  marvellous  progress  of  the 
United  States  reduced  to  south  latitude.  France  and 
Italy,  under  a  system  of  navigation  and  ship-building 
bounties,  have  largely  increased  their  steam  fleets  in 
those  Avaters.  Germany  and  England,  with  liberal 
compensation  for  mail  transportation,  have  easily  kept 
abreast  with  the  progress  of  their  rivals.  There  is 
intense  rivalry  among  the  four  chief  maritime  powers 
for  the  control  of  the  commerce  of  the  Plate.  So  fast  is 
the  pace  that  sailing  vessels  are  dropping  out  of  the  race. 
The  French  bounty  law  of  1881  and  the  Italian  bounty 
law  of  1885  have  failed  to  revive  the  sailing  marines  of 
those  countries.  It  is  a  steamship  race,  and  the  United 
States  has  not  a  single  entry  out  of  765.     It  had  sixteen 


ENTRANCE    OF   THE   PLATE  79 

sailing  vessels  in  port  during  1888,  out  of  1357  arrivals 
of  all  classes,  and  not  one  steamship.  European  rivals 
are  making  extraordinary  exertions  to  enlarge  their 
fleets  and  to  establish  commercial  supremacy.  The 
United  States  has  done  nothing,  at  least  until  March, 
1891,  to  aid  its  commerce.  It  regards  Montevideo  as  a 
healthful  station  for  its  South  Atlantic  squadron  and 
apparently  is  content  with  its  humiliating  effacement 
from  the  struggle  for  maritime  ascendency. 

The  four  great  powers,  which  have  largely  increased 
their  commercial  marines  in  the  course  of  ten  years, 
have  also  doubled  their  export  trade.  Belgium,  which 
recently  subsidized  an  English  line,  has  increased  her 
volume  of  exports  to  Uruguay  nearly  five  times.  France 
and  Italy  under  bounty  laws  have  done  well.  The  United 
States  alone  remains  stationary,  for  it  is  the  only  great 
country  in  the  world  that  systematically  neglects  the 
interests  of  its  commercial  marine.  Against  a  fleet  of 
294  European  steamships,  it  had  in  1890  five  steamers 
on  the  Brazil  coast  as  far  as  Santos,  and  nothing  below 
except  a  sailing  vessel  perhaps  once  or  twice  a  month 
in  the  harbor  of  Montevideo.  The  exports  to  the 
United  States  show  no  perceptible  increase  from  year 
to  year.  In  1889  the  aggregate  was  $2,252,428,  against 
$2,347,054  in  1882.  The  exports  from  the  United 
States  to  Montevideo  are  equally  inelastic.  Trade 
with  maritime  Europe  flourishes  and  multiplies  with 
the  development  of  its  commercial  marine.  Trade  with 
the  United  States  languishes  and  shrinks  from  sheer 
inanition.  Americans  in  Montevideo  are  naturally 
humiliated  by  the  meagre  exhibit  made  by  their  coun- 
try's merchant  marine.  I  met  many  of  them,  for  Mr. 
Hill,  the  consul,  introduced  me  at  the  English  Club  to 


80  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

a  swarm  of  bright  acquaintances  and  ended  by  taking 
me  to  dinner  at  the  Uruguay  Club  with  the  American 
minister,  General  Maney.  In  a  single  day  I  was  made 
to  feel  entirely  at  home  in  what  is  undoubtedly  the 
pleasantest  and  most  social  city  in  South  America, 
and  during  a  fortnight's  visit  in  Uruguay  I  was  highly 
favored  with  genuine  evidences  of  hospitality.  I  can 
speak  with  confidence  respecting  the  sentiment  of 
Americans  there  respecting  the  decadence  of  the  com- 
mercial marine. 

From  the  mouth  of  the  Plate  a  single  high  hill  close 
to  the  water's  edge  is  seen.  It  is  the  landmark  from 
which  Montevideo  derives  its  name.  It  guards  the 
entrance  to  a  deep  cove,  which  forms  the  inner  harbor. 
Opposite  stands  the  city  on  a  peninsula,  perhaps  half 
a  mile  in  width,  the  street  levels  sloping  toward  the 
river-front  on  one  side,  and  toward  the  back  bay  on 
the  other.  Thirty  years  ago  only  a  portion  of  this  pen- 
insula was  occupied.  Now  the  city  stretches  outward 
for  miles  along  the  river,  and  back  of  the  bay  there  are 
beautiful  suburbs  with  lovely  gardens.  The  suburbs 
encircle  the  bay  and  fringe  the  base  of  the  mountain, 
with  its  fortifications  and  slaughter  pens.  The  popu- 
lation probably  exceeds  200,000  and  is  increasing  with 
remarkable  rapidity.  Immigration  within  the  last 
decade  has  reinforced  the  Uruguayan  stock  with  large 
contingents  from  Italy  and  Spain.  Italians  take  the 
place  of  the  negroes  of  a  Brazilian  coast  city  as  the 
working  population.  They  man  the  lighters,  pave 
the  streets,  and  do  a  large  part  of  the  manual  labor. 
Spanish  is  the  prevailing  language,  but  Italian  can  be 
heard  at  every  turn.  There  are  also  thousands  of 
Basques  from  Spain  and  France,  and  as  many  Brazil- 


ENTRANCE   OF   THE   PLATE  81 

ians  from  the  southern  provinces. .  Uruguay  is  a  coun- 
try about  as  large  as  tlie  six  New  England  States, 
with  New  Jersey  and  Delaware  added.  It  has  a  popu- 
lation of  800,000,  with  600,000  native  Uruguayans. 

Buenos  Ayres  has  a  new  system  of  water-front  and 
docks  under  construction,  but  Montevideo,  with  a  har- 
bor that  could  easily  be  improved,  has  allowed  its  ener- 
getic rival  across  the  Plate  to  surpass  it  in  enterprise. 
The  depth  of  water,  in  the  bay  opposite  the  Cerro,  is 
five  feet  less  than  it  was  seventy  years  ago,  and  is  now 
receding  a  few  inches  every  year.  The  ocean  steamers 
cannot  enter  the  inner  harbor,  but  anchor  outside  in  a 
roadstead  that  is  often  dangerous.  Engineers  have 
devised  a  system  of  jetties  by  which  twenty-five  feet 
of  water  will  be  provided  in  the  bay;  but  although  a 
company  has  been  organized  to  construct  the  new  port, 
and  legislative  appropriations  have  been  made  for  the 
work,  these  greatly  needed  harbor  improvements  are 
deferred  year  after  year.  Montevideo  lacks  enterprise, 
but  it  has  scenic  beauty  and  natural  advantages  to  which 
its  ambitious  and  successful  competitor  can  never  aspire. 
The  Cerro,  with  its  crumbling  Spanish  fort  and  revolv- 
ing lighthouse,  furnishes  a  setting  for  the  handsome, 
well-built  town.  As  the  steamer  arrives  at  the  anchor- 
age at  sunset,  the  architectural  lines  of  the  more  con- 
spicuous buildings  are  softened  and  refined  by  the 
fading  light.  The  fagade  of  the  Solis  Theatre,  perhaps 
the  handsomest  modern  building  in  South  America, 
catches  the  eye.  The  Matrix  Church  in  Plaza  Con- 
stitucion  looms  up,  and  the  long  line  of  the  Julio,  the 
finest  avenue  to  be  seen  in  the  southern  hemisphere,  is 
distinctly  traced.  The  bolsa  stands  out  among  the 
handsome  banks  of  the  Cerrito  quarter.     The  English 


82  TEOPICAL   AJSIERICA 

Church,  with  its  Grecian  front,  is  in  line  Avith  the 
Campo  Santo,  the  unique  necropolis  by  the  water's 
edge.  Beyond  the  city's  compactly  and  even  massively 
built  streets  are  the  quintas  of  Paso  del  Molino,  embow- 
ered in  their  parks  and  gardens.  By  no  trick  of  atmos- 
pheric effect  nor  shifting  of  sunset  light  can  plain, 
prosaic  Buenos  Ayres  be  transfigured  to  equal  comeli- 
ness and  beauty. 

Montevideo  is  neither  quaint  like  Bahia  nor  pictur- 
esque like  Rio,  but  it  is  modern  and  handsome.  The 
streets  are  wide,  well  paved  and  lighted,  and  compactly 
built  up.  The  architecture  is  modern  and  massive. 
Granite  and  Italian  marbles  are  used  in  the  handsome 
building  fronts.  Portuguese  tiles  are  seen  only  in  the 
oldest  quarters  of  the  town.  Plaster  fronts,  so  common 
in  Brazil,  are  replaced  with  fine  building  stone,  much 
of  which  is  quarried  in  the  Uruguay  hills.  The  leading 
thoroughfare,  the  Julio,  recording  a  date  of  patriotic 
memor3%  is  approached  from  Plaza  C'onstitucion,  where 
stands  the  cathedral,  a  massive  building  with  two 
towers.  On  another  side  is  the  showy  Uruguay  Club 
house.  Close  at  hand  is  the  chief  opera  house  and 
theatre  of  the  town.  A  few  blocks  further  on  is  a 
plaza,  surrounded  on  four  sides  by  government  and 
other  buildings,  with  continuous  lines  of  colonnades 
and  arcades,  a  unique  and  striking  effect.  A  third 
plaza  with  a  graceful  column  surmounted  with  a  statue 
of  Liberty  is  in  the  heart  of  the  city.  All  the  way  from 
Plaza  Independencia,  the  Julio  is  lined  with  handsome 
shops,  in  which  European  goods  are  attractively  dis- 
played. It  has  the  airy  effect  of  a  cool,  tasteful  Pari- 
sian boulevard. 

Montevideo  is  as  modern  in  its  manner  of  life  as  in 


ENTRANCE   OF   THE   PLATE  83 

its  architectural  aspects.  Bustle  and  activity  pervade 
its  streets.  There  are  street  cars  trundling  in  every 
thoroughfare,  the  musical  horns  of  the  conductor  being 
heard  long  past  midnight  and  in  the  earliest  hours  of  the 
morning.  Handsome  carriages  and  cabs  are  in  the 
streets.  The  wide  sidewalks  are  thronged  with  a  busy, 
energetic,  and  thrifty  population.  There  is  a  wide- 
awake and  prosperous  air  about  the  town,  that  reminds 
one  strongly  of  Boston,  to  which  it  bears  a  marked 
resemblance  in  topographical  features  and  compactness 
of  construction.  But  Montevideo  is  European  rather 
than  American  in  its  aspects  and  customs.  It  is  a 
modern  Spanish  town,  with  glimpses  of  Italian  archi- 
tecture and  French  refinement  of  taste,  and  with  the 
commercial  bustle  and  movement  of  Bremen  or  Ham- 
burg. The  custom-house  is  an  institution  conducted 
on  modern  principles  and  with  a  business  intelligence 
that  is  lacking  in  Brazil.  There  is  no  dawdling  in 
street  or  in  shop.  Men  have  work  to  do,  and  they  do- 
not  waste  time  over  it.  The  city  belongs  to  the  last 
decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  not  midway  in 
the  eighteenth,  like  many  of  the  Brazilian  towns. 

The  most  beautiful  suburb  of  the  city  is  Paso  del 
Molino,  where  is  the  Prado,  a  public  park,  with  line 
upon  line  of  tasteful  villas  surrounded  with  gardens. 
These  suburban  houses  are  utterly  unlike  the  old- 
fashioned  Portuguese  mansions  of  Brazil  and  belong  to 
the  modern  class  of  spacious,  well-designed,  and  thor- 
oughly comfortable  country  residences.  The  gardens 
are  lovely.  The  latitude  is  lower  by  seven  degrees 
than  that  of  New  York  and  the  climate  is  more  equable. 
Greenhouses  are  largely  dispensed  with,  the  tempera- 
ture,  even   in  the   coldest  weather,   being   above   the 


84  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

freezing-point.  Roses  require  no  protection  in  winter, 
and  flowers  are  blooming  all  the  year  in  these  spacious 
and  orderly  gardens.  Fine  lawns  are  infrequent,  the 
grass  not  being  suitable  for  good  landscape  effects ;  but 
the  displays  of  trees  and  flowering  shrubbery  of  all 
kinds  are  exceedingly  beautiful. 

Uruguay  is  a  stock-raising  and  sheep-farming  coun- 
try, whose  commercial  interests  are  intimately  con- 
nected with  those  of  the  Argentine  Republic  and 
Paraguay  on  one  side  and  with  those  of  Brazil  on  the 
other.  It  was  originally  a  dependency  of  Brazil,  but 
broke  away  from  the  Empire  in  1825  and  adopted  a 
constitution  in  1830.  After  a  transition  period  of 
political  confederation  with  Paraguay  and  the  Argen- 
tine as  one  of  the  United  Provinces  of  the  Rio  de  la 
Plata,  it  is  now  a  self-governing  State  in  close  commer- 
cial intercourse  with  those  republics  as  well  as  with 
Brazil.  General  Maney  undertook  to  instruct  me  at 
his  hospitable  mansion  respecting  the  mysteries  of 
Uruguaj^an  politics,  but  even  the  most  genial  diplo- 
matist is  an  unsafe  guide  when  he  is  at  his  post  in  a 
foreign  country,  for  he  will  be  certain  to  take  optimis- 
tic views  in  regard  to  the  government  to  which  he  is 
accredited.  The  impression  which  I  received  from 
other  sources  was  that  the  government  had  been  in 
recent  years  one  of  the  most  despotic  in  Spanish 
America.  One  can  hear  in  Montevideo  blood-curdling 
tales  of  military  cabals  and  political  assassinations. 
For  forty  years  there  has  been  civil  strife  and  one 
Executive  after  another  has  been  overthrown  before 
his  term  was  half  over.  The  Presidents,  with  the  army 
and  police  behind  them,  have  exercised  almost  absolute 
power.  There  have  been  two  legislative  houses,  a 
senate,  elected  by  indirect  suffrage,  and  a  chamber  of 


ENTRANCE   OF   THE   PLATE  85 

representatives,  chosen  in  the  proportion  of  one  to 
every  3000  who  can  read  and  write ;  and  when  Con- 
gress is  not  in  session  there  has  been  a  legislative 
committee  nominally  in  control  of  the  government; 
but  practically  the  President  is  master  of  the  situa- 
tion. While  he  is  not  eligible  to  re-election,  he 
ordinarily  names  his  successor  and  elects  him.  While 
I  was  in  Montevideo,  President  Tages  proclaimed  his 
intention  of  abstaining  from  influencing  the  choice  of 
his  successor.  A  civilian  candidate  at  once  appeared 
upon  the  scene,  and  Uruguayans  were  greatly  interested 
in  watching  the  result.  If  he  could  be  elected,  it  would 
be  the  transition  from  a  military  dictatorship  to  genuine 
republican  government.  AjDparently  President  Tages 
could  not  resist  the  temptation  to  exert  his  influence, 
for  not  long  after  my  departure  I  learned  that  the  civil- 
ian candidate  was  unsuccessful  and  that  a  favorite  of 
the  President  was  chosen  as  his  successor. 

The  passage  from  Montevideo  to  Buenos  Ayres  cor- 
responds to  the  journey  between  Boston  and  New  York 
without  the  railway  ride.  It  occupies  one  night  and 
is  esteemed  the  most  luxurious  travelling  of  which 
Spanish- American  civilization  is  capable.  The  Venus 
and  the  JEolo  are  regarded  on  the  Plate  very  much  as 
the  Puritan  and  the  Pilgrim  are  in  New  York  and 
Boston,  as  unrivalled  passenger  steamers.  They  have 
handsomely  furnished  saloon  parlors  and  dining-rooms, 
electric  lights  in  the  cabins,  and  excellent  service.  In 
its  lavish  hospitality,  La  Platense  Flotilla,  Limited, 
left  the  narrowest  possible  margin  for  grievances.  It 
provided  a  bunch  of  flowers  at  each  plate,  a  dinner  of  a 
dozen  courses,  and  wines,  cordials,  and  brandy.  At 
nine  o'clock  tea  was  served  with  whiskey  as  a  sweet- 
ener for  those  who  wanted  it,  and  in  the  morning  every 


86  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

passenger  had  his  pot  of  coffee  before  leaving  the  boat. 
There  was  no  extra  cliarge  for  this  luxurious  living, 
the  passage  ticket  covering  the  expense  of  the  journey. 
The  ladies  of  Montevideo  are  famous  in  South  Amer- 
ica for  their  beauty  and  the  refinement  of  their  manners. 
There  were  many  of  them  on  the  Veims,  displaying 
expensive  Parisian  gowns,  as  well  as  vivacity  in  conver- 
sation. As  a  foil  for  them  there  were  a  dozen  nuns 
with  their  sombre  garb.  I  sat  near  them  at  dinner  and 
noticed  that  the  discipline  of  their  order  was  not  austere, 
since  they  drank  wine  with  freedom  and  chatted  with 
men  at  the  table.  Conversation  was  almost  wholly  in 
Spanish,  with  an  undertone  of  French.  From  Brazil 
to  the  Plate  one  passes  suddenly  from  Portuguese  to 
Spanish  America.  The  languages  are  so  closely  allied 
as  to  be  double  cousins.  In  Brazil  I  had  found  that  a 
Portuguese  and  a  Spaniard  could  talk  at  ease,  each 
understanding  the  other  while  speaking  his  own  tongue. 
In  the  Plate  countries  there  is  little  Portuguese,  but 
Italian  is  the  language  of  the  working  people  who  have 
recently  emigrated  from  southern  Europe.  There  are 
large  Italian  quarters  in  Montevideo  and  Buenos  Ayres, 
but  Spanish  will  always  predominate  as  the  language 
of  South  America.  It  is  not  necessary  that  a  traveller 
should  speak  either  Portuguese  or  Spanish  in  order  to 
visit  Brazil  and  the  Plate  countries.  French  hotels 
and  restaurants  are  found  all  along  the  coast.  There 
are  French  book-stores  in  every  town.  Familiarity  with 
the  French  language  is  more  useful  to  a  traveller  in 
that  part  of  the  world  than  a  smattering  of  Spanish  and 
Portuguese.  With  English  he  can  get  on,  albeit 
laboriously,  but  with  French  he  can  travel  in  comfort 
from  Pard  to  Buenos  Ayres  and  from  Valparaiso  to 
Cardcas. 


VI 

ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE 

NEW  HARBOR  OF  BUENOS  AYRES  —  CHICAGO  LATITUDE 
SOUTH  —  LA  PLATA  AND  ITS  PORT  —  RAPID  PROGRESS 
or  ROSARIO  —  AGRICULTURAL  COLONIES  —  MEDIEVAL 
CORDOVA  —  OVER  THE  PAMPAS  TO  MENDOZA  —  THE 
ARGENTINE'S  BEST  INVESTMENT AN  ORGY  OF  CUR- 
RENCY INFLATION  AND  SPECULATION  POLITICAL  CA- 
BALS    AND     JOBBERY THE     REVOLUTION     OF     JULY,    1890 

FUTURE    OF    THE    ARGENTINE 

The  first  glimpse  of  Buenos  Ayres  after  the  night 
passage  from  Montevideo  reveals  the  energy  of  the 
Argentine  nation,  the  South  American  Yankee-land. 
The  new  harbor  even  in  its  unfinished  state  is  a  mag- 
nificent work  of  engineering.  The  city  has  a  frontage 
of  four  miles  on  the  river  Plate,  into  which  empties  a 
little  stream,  the  Riachuelo.  Harbor  there  was  none, 
until  the  work  of  artificially  making  one  was  under- 
taken. So  great  was  the  wash  of  sand  inshore  that  the 
heaviest  ocean  steamers  were  forced  to  anchor  from 
twelve  to  twenty  miles  from  the  city,  landing  passen- 
gers b}^  steam  tenders,  boats,  and  water-carts,  and  dis- 
charging cargoes  by  lighters.  The  Boca,  or  mouth  of 
the  Riachuelo,  was  taken  as  the  base  of  operations  for 
providing  the  city  with  a  port.  The  bed  of  this  little 
stream  was  excavated,  a  series  of  levees  was  built  along 
its  banks,  and  a  channel  ten  miles  long  was  dredged 
and  marked  with  buoys  to  the  deep  water  of  the  Plate. 

87 


88  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

This  work  occupied  twelve  years,  and  furnished  a  pro- 
visional harbor  which  could  be  entered  by  vessels  draw- 
ing twenty-four  feet  of  water.  It  has  been  supplemented 
by  the  Madero  port  work,  which  was  begun  in  1885  un- 
der government  contract  with  an  English  company.  At 
the  entrance  to  the  Boca  a  breakwater  was  built  along 
the  water-front  of  the  city,  but  at  a  long  distance  from 
it.  Between  this  wall  and  the  old  water-front  a  series 
of  five  immense  basins  was  planned,  connecting  by 
wide  canals  with  one  another  end  to  end,  with  the  Boca 
at  the  harbor  entrance,  and  with  a  northern  basin,  where 
there  will  be  an  opening  in  the  malecon  and  a  second 
passage  seaward. 

This  stupendous  work,  as  I  saw  it  under  the  pilotage 
of  Mr.  Baker,  the  American  consul,  was  only  partly 
finished,  but  the  benefits  to  shipping  interests  were 
already  very  great.  The  Riachuelo  was  jammed  with 
vessels,  and  the  levees  were  piled  high  with  merchan- 
dise. The  entrance  channel  was  open  and  the  south 
dock  was  filled  with  European  steamers.  The  second 
and  third  docks  were  in  an  advanced  stage  of  construc- 
tion, and  the  breakwater  had  been  built  for  a  distance  of 
a  mile  and  a  half.  Scores  of  streets  had  been  opened, 
sewered,  and  paved,  and  business  structures  were  rap- 
idly filling  the  empty  spaces  of  reclaimed  land.  With 
deep  water  outside  the  malecon,  it  will  be  possible  to 
sewer  and  drain  the  city  without  having  the  Plate  a 
constant  source  of  contamination.  Like  every  other 
public  work  in  the  Argentine,  the  new  port  has  been 
tainted  with  jobbery  and  scandal.  It  will  be  cheap  at 
any  price  if  it  fulfils  the  expectations  of  the  engineers. 

Buenos  Ayres,  as  I  saw  it  on  the  eve  of  the  col- 
lapse of  its  fortunes,  was  Chicago  reduced  to  southern 


ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE  89 

latitude.  When  I  went  to  the  Boca  and  looked  at  the 
shipping  jammed  in  the  Riachuelo,  I  was  reminded  of 
Chicago  River.  When  I  returned  by  train  along  the 
water's  edge  and  went  out  to  Belgrano,  passing  two 
riverside  parks,  I  recalled  again  the  metrojDolis  of  the 
West  with  its  railways,  pleasure-grounds,  and  palatial 
residences  along  the  lake  shore.  The  sun  rose  over  a 
river  so  broad  that  it  was  like  Lake  Michigan.  From 
that  river  base,  the  city  had  shot  out  north,  south,  and 
west  over  a  level  plain,  doubling  its  population  within 
a  decade  and  developing  an  immense  volume  of  busi- 
ness. It  was  the  most  important  railway  centre  of 
South  America.  It  was  the  outlet  for  continental 
reaches  of  wheat  belt.  It  was  the  chief  slaughter-house 
for  the  stock-raising  pampas.  It  commanded  a  river 
system  exceeding  in  volume  the  Mississippi.  Its  com- 
merce had  expanded  into  enormous  compass.  It  was 
fairly  pulsating  with  vitality,  enterprise,  and  ambition. 
It  had  absolute  faith  in  its  destiny  as  one  of  the  chief . 
commercial  centres  of  the  world.  It  had  intense  local 
pride  and  was  not  particularly  modest.  In  all  these 
respects  it  strongly  resembled  the  Chicago  of  the  North. 
Buenos  Ayres  was  like  Chicago  six  months  after  the 
great  fire ;  but  there  had  been  no  calamity  involving  the 
necessity  of  the  reconstruction  of  the  city  on  a  large 
scale.  It  was  only  the  end  of  a  mad  revel  of  profligacy 
and  jobbery,  during  which  the  national  capital  was 
squandering  the  millions  lent  by  credulous  English 
investors  on  the  strength  of  the  Barings'  recommen- 
dation. My  first  stroll  carried  me  to  the  civic  centre, 
Plaza  Victoria,  and  revealed  the  most  characteristic  of 
the  extravagant  public  works  undertaken  by  Presi- 
dent Juarez  Celman.     This  was  the  new  Mayo  boule- 


90  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

vard.  Opening  into  the  plaza  were  two  narrow 
thoroughfares  several  miles  in  length.  Between  these 
two  streets  a  broad  avenue  was  laid  out  at  an  expense 
of  many  millions.  Some  of  the  most  massive  buildings 
of  the  town  were  either  pulled  down  or  reduced  to 
narrow  and  unshapely  shells,  in  order  to  furnish  space 
for  this  boulevard.  It  was  a  stupendous  job,  out  of 
which  contractors  and  corrupt  officials  made  fortunes. 
I  could  not  judge  fairly  of  the  artistic  effect  in  the 
unfinished  state  of  the  boulevard,  but  it  was  evident 
that  a  large  section  of  the  business  quarter  had  been 
reconstructed  at  high  cost  without  any  apparent  neces- 
sity for  the  improvement. 

Plaza  Victoria  is  surrounded  by  the  government 
palace,  the  law  courts,  the  capitol,  the  cabildo,  the 
cathedral,  the  bishop's  palace,  the  bolsa,  and  the 
national  bank.  Even  with  its  two  patriotic  monu- 
ments, the  square  is  a  bare  and  unattractive  place  and 
illustrates  Sir  Arthur  Helps's  remark,  "The  Spanish 
like  not  many  trees."  Millions  have  been  expended 
there  in  pavements  and  luxuriously  appointed  build- 
ings. Although  some  of  the  new  government  struct- 
ures have  fine  lines,  there  is  a  jumble  of  architectural 
effects.  The  cathedral  remains  the  most  impressive 
structure  of  the  great  plaza.  There  are  many  costly 
buildings  in  Buenos  Ayres,  notably  the  banks,  com- 
mercial exchanges,  government  offices,  and  railway 
stations.  Millions  have  been  invested  in  ornamental 
fronts  of  brick  and  stucco  designed  by  French  and 
Italian  architects.  While  the  small  squares  in  the 
heart  of  the  city  are  unattractive,  there  is  a  park  of  840 
acres  at  Palermo  with  two  fine  driveways,  bordered 
with  palms  and  firs  and  illuminated  at  night  with  a 


ACROSS   THE  ARGENTINE  91 

glare  of  electric  light.  Palatial  residences  abound  in 
that  quarter,  where  fortunes  made  by  speculation  or  by 
maladministration  of  public  money  were  squandered 
in  showy  architecture  and  luxurious  furnishing.  Be- 
wildering as  was  the  display  of  equipages  in  the  Argen- 
tine Rotten  Row,  and  sumptuous  as  was  the  manner  of 
life  of  the  wealthy  classes,  there  was  something  unreal 
and  artificial  in  the  ostentatious  splendors  of  the  capi- 
tal. One  scarcely  needed  to  be  told  that  the  nation  had 
been  borrowing  money  abroad  beyond  its  resources,  had 
gone  on  contracting  new  loans  in  order  to  meet  the  in- 
terest on  its  old  debts,  and  had  wasted  its  substance  on 
luxurious  houses  and  profligate  living. 

Hardly  had  I  established  myself  in  the  Grand  Hotel 
and  through  the  courtesy  of  General  Pitkin,  the  Amer- 
ican minister,  and  Mr.  Baker,  the  American  consul, 
received  introductions  to  a  large  circle  of  influential  and 
agreeable  acquaintances,  before  the  professional  statisti- 
cians made  a  concerted  attack  upon  me.  These  ingen- 
uous gentlemen  had  been  remarkably  successful  in  flat- 
tering the  vanity  of  the  town  by  every  method  of  com- 
parison with  the  great  cities  of  the  world,  and  the 
incoming  traveller  was  importuned  to  accept  the  evi- 
dence of  their  calculations  and  averages.  I  felt  help- 
less in  the  toils  of  these  figure-working  magicians 
until  they  sought  to  demonstrate  by  statistics  that 
Buenos  Ayres  was  one  of  the  handsomest  cities  in 
Christendom.  Then  I  knew  my  ground  and  rebelled. 
The  Argentine  capital  has  been  greatly  improved  dur- 
ing the  last  decade,  especially  along  the  river-front, 
where  the  Paseo  de  Julio  has  been  converted  into 
a  spacious  boulevard;  but  it  is  neither  as  favorably 
situated  nor  as  attractive  in  architecture,  suburbs,  and 


92  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

pleasure-grounds  as  Montevideo,  The  picturesque 
beauties  of  Baliia  and  the  majestic  mountain  scenery 
of  Rio  de  Janeiro  are  lacking.  The  streets  are  uniform 
in  narrowness,  and  the  shops  and  houses  on  one  are  like 
the  shops  and  houses  on  the  others.  The  miniature 
plazas  fail  to  break  the  monotonous  effect  of  the  pro- 
fusely ornamented  stucco  fronts.  There  is  a  ceaseless 
rumble  of  traffic  by  day  and  a  blaze  of  electric  light  by 
night.  As  a  centre  of  business  activity  Buenos  Ayres 
has  been  unique  in  South  America,  but  bustle  is  not 
beauty  and  trade  statistics  have  no  power  of  refreshing 
the  eye. 

Exception  must  be  taken  in  favor  of  the  churches, 
which  are  the  handsomest  to  be  found  on  the  Atlantic 
coast  of  South  America.  The  cathedral  was  begun 
in  1580  and  rebuilt  in  1752,  and  the  imposing  facade 
was  subsequently  added  by  General  Rosas,  a  tyrant 
who  needed  to  do  something  for  religion  to  atone  for 
his  crimes  against  liberty.  The  portico  is  upheld  by 
twelve  Corinthian  columns,  and  the  tympanum  has 
a  bass-relief  of  patriotic  significance.  It  represents 
Joseph  embracing  his  brethren  and  commemorates  the 
reunion  of  Buenos  Ayres  with  the  other  Argentine 
provinces.  In  the  vast  interior,  which  is  nearly  as 
spacious  as  Notre  Dame  in  Paris,  there  is  a  high 
altar  under  a  dome  rising  130  feet  and  there  are 
twelve  side  chapels.  Many  of  the  churches  are  built 
of  stone  or  polished  marble  and  are  modern  structures, 
with  fine  architectural  lines.  There  are  eight  or 
ten  Protestant  churches,  the  English  church  being 
perhaps  the  most  conspicuous.  There  is  absolute 
religious  tolerance  in  the  Argentine.  The  Church 
is    not    disestablished,     appropriations    amounting    to 


ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE  93 

$215,000  for  the  stipends  of  the  clergy  being  included 
in  the  annual  budgets ;  but  this  is  a  meagre  sum.  The 
influence  of  the  Church  is  very  different  in  the 
Argentine  from  what  it  is  in  Brazil.  The  clergy  are 
educated  men,  the  parishes  are  centres  of  religious  life, 
and  an  active  work  of  practical  benevolence  is  carried 
on.  The  population  is  one  of  higher  intelligence  than 
can  be  found  anywhere  in  Brazil.  Great  attention  has 
been  paid  to  education,  free  schools  having  been  estab- 
lished in  all  the  leading  towns.  There  are  170  schools 
in  the  national  capital,  with  lyceums  for  higher  instruc- 
tion, a  university,  and  a  medical  school. 

When  my  statistical  mentors  refrained  from  poaching 
upon  the  domain  of  aesthetics,  I  was  content  to  follow 
them,  and  to  bear  my  tribute  to  evidences  of  material 
progress  and  commercial  enterprise  unparalleled  in  the 
annals  of  Tropical  America.  The  population  of  the 
city  was  78,500  in  1857;  and  it  is  at  least  550,000 
to-day.  Its  foreign  trade  rose  from  -121,000,000  in 
1850  to  1228,000,000  in  1889.  This  phenomenal  prog- 
ress had  the  effect  of  stimulating  the  imagination  of 
the  town.  It  had  the  largest  possible  ideas  of  its  own 
importance  and  destiny.  What  the  statisticians  did  not 
affect  to  deny  was  that  Buenos  Ayres,  with  all  its  splen- 
did enterprise,  had  been  largely  dependent  upon  foreign 
intelligence  and  capital  for  its  extraordinary  progress. 
There  are  many  phases  of  resemblance  between  Buenos 
Ayres  and  Chicago,  but  here  is  a  sharp  line  of  contrast. 
Chicago  is  not  in  bondage  to  foreign  merchants,  manu- 
facturers, and  capitalists,  but  shapes  and  directs  its  own 
commercial  destiny. 

The  chief  cause  of  the  financial  disorders  by  which 
the  industrial  energies  of  the  Argentine  have  been  par- 


94  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

alyzed  since  1889  was  an  orgy  of  currency  inflation 
and  speculative  activity,  induced  by  rapid  national 
growth  and  excessive  supplies  of  foreign  capital,  bor- 
rowed at  high  rates  of  interest.  For  a  decade  all 
classes  of  landowners  and  business  men  were  in  a  fever 
of  excitement,  undertaking  the  most  reckless  and  chi- 
merical schemes,  under  the  delusion  that  anything  and 
everything  could  be  done  in  a  country  advancing  at 
high  speed  in  material  prosperity  and  receiving  an 
enormous  increase  of  population  from  southern  Europe. 
One  gets  an  inkling  of  the  truth  when  he  hears  at  the 
clubs  recitals  of  the  vagaries  of  speculation  during 
recent  years  and  is  informed  of  the  stupendous  opera- 
tions of  the  mortgage  banks ;  but  when  he  spends  a 
morning  at  the  bolsa  and  then  takes  a  journey  to  La 
Plata  he  receives  convincing  object  lessons. 

The  stock  exchange  is  a  vast  structure  with  a  spa- 
cious hall  surrounded  by  a  gallery,  where  scenes  of 
excitement  and  reckless  speculation  have  been  enacted, 
rivalling  those  of  Wall  Street  in  the  most  feverish 
times.  The  number  of  members  ranges  between  4000 
and  5000 ;  and  while  gold  transactions  are  the  most 
important,  every  class  of  securities  is  dealt  with  by  a 
mob  of  carefully  dressed  Argentine  dandies  on  the 
floor.  These  gamblers  in  gold  and  stocks,  whose  oper- 
ations represented  a  nominal  valuation  of  hundreds 
of  millions  a  year,  had  been  transformed  from  the  sim- 
plicity of  pampa  farmers  to  Parisian  speculators.  Pre- 
cocious children  of  the  South,  with  imitative  powers 
which  enabled  them  to  adapt  themselves  rapidly  to 
European  manners  and  ideas,  they  had  been  drawn  into 
the  city  by  an  unlimited  supply  of  foreign  money  and 
unrivalled  opportunities  for  public  jobbery.     The  cupid- 


ACROSS   THE  ARGENTINE  95 

ity  of  European  investors  reaching  after  high  rates  of 
interest  stimulated  their  own  avarice.  Every  one  of 
these  brokers  had  aspired  to  become  a  millionaire  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years,  to  build  a  palace  in  the  fashiona- 
ble quarter,  to  drive  afternoon  and  evening  at  Palermo 
in  the  procession  of  brilliant  equipages,  and  to  live  as 
luxuriously  as  the  Barings  and  all  the  European  money- 
lenders, who  were  ministering  to  his  vices  and  com- 
passing his  ultimate  ruin. 

In  the  halcyon  days  of  English  investments  and 
Italian  immigration,  nothing  seemed  impracticable  in 
the  Argentine.  La  Plata  was  a  city  built  to  order  in 
an  incredibly  short  period  and  was  at  once  a  success 
and  a  failure.  It  was  laid  out  on  paper  in  1881  by  the 
governor  of  Buenos  Ayres,  and  designed  to  be  like 
Washington,  a  city  of  magnificent  distances.  Buenos 
Ayres,  from  historic  times  the  capital  of  the  province, 
had  been  made,  after  a  protracted  political  and  sectional 
struggle,  the  capital  of  the  Argentine  Confederation. 
Dr.  Rocha  determined  to  build  a  new  capital,  which 
would  be  at  once  spacious,  handsome,  and  modern. 
He  was  successful  in  this  part  of  his  scheme.  He  failed 
when  he  attempted  at  La  Plata  to  rival  Buenos  Ayres 
in  commerce,  business  activity,  and  civic  influence. 

Everything  was  planned  on  a  broad  scale.  Sites  were 
set  apart  for  the  provincial  assembly,  the  governor's 
residence,  the  provincial  departments,  a  city  hall,  a 
spacious  railway  station,  libraries,  museums,  schools, 
churches,  and  everything  befitting  the  dignity  of  the 
largest,  richest,  and  most  influential  State  of  the  Con- 
federation. The  streets  were  laid  out  as  broad  avenues, 
twice  or  three  times  as  wide  as  the  thoroughfares  of 
Buenos    Ayres.       Buildings    of    splendid    proportions 


96  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

were  planned,  at  long  distances  one  from  another,  and 
surrounded  with  ample  grounds,  artistically  planted 
for  landscape  effects.  Spaces  were  reserved  for  squares 
and  public  gardens,  which  were  lacking  in  Buenos 
Ayres.  Thousands  of  Avorkmen  were  employed  to 
build  the  city  in  two  years.  Ensenada,  the  port,  lay 
three  miles  away,  with  outer  and  inner  roadsteads  and 
a  bar  between  them.  In  order  to  convert  it  into  a 
harbor  it  was  necessary  to  deepen  the  channel  between 
the  basins  and  to  construct  a  canal  several  miles  long. 
After  millions  had  been  expended,  La  Plata  was  sup- 
plied with  an  artificial  port  and  opened  to  the  commerce 
of  the  world.  The  provincial  departments  were  re- 
moved from  Buenos  Ayres  in  1884.  All  the  conven- 
iences and  appliances  of  civilization  were  supplied. 
Even  a  new  cemetery  was  opened,  so  that  incoming 
residents  could  have  a  feeling  that  they  might  die  and 
be  comfortably  buried  whenever  they  liked. 

La  Plata  lies  to  the  south  of  Buenos  Ayres,  an  hour's 
journey  by  railway  from  the  central  station  in  the  Paseo 
de  Julio.  The  train  draws  up  into  a  spacious  and  well- 
appointed  depot.  A  broad  avenue  lined  with  palaces 
stretches  in  either  directi^^n  as  far  as  the  eye  can  see. 
These  stately  structures  with  their  marble  colonnades 
and  imposing  faQades  are  the  finest  to  be  found  in  the 
southern  hemisphere.  The  legislative  halls,  the  law 
courts,  the  department  buildings,  the  governor's  pal- 
ace, the  provincial  banks,  the  observatory,  the  museum, 
are  happily  varied  in  form  and  design.  Each  stands 
alone  and  is  surrounded  by  spacious  grounds.  There 
is  a  monumental  entrance  to  a  neglected  park,  which 
was  intended  to  rival  Palermo.  The  cathedral  alone  is 
unfinished.     The  port  works  represent  a  financial  outlay 


ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE  97 

of  at  least  $17,000,000  in  gold,  and  the  government's 
expenditures  in  the  city  cannot  have  been  less  than 
$60,000,000. 

When  the  city  was  building,  there  were  extensive 
land  speculations,  and  hundreds  of  houses  Avere  erected 
at  high  cost,  every  real  estate  operator  hastily  assuming 
that  the  expenditure  of  millions  of  government  money 
would  involve  of  necessity  permanent  commercial  pros- 
perity. The  completion  of  the  principal  provincial 
buildings  and  the  removal  of  the  government  officials  to 
their  new  residences  were  followed  by  a  rush  of  popula- 
tion. In  the  course  of  the  first  two  years  a  census  was 
taken  and  30,000  residents  were  reported,  and  the 
population  subsequently  increased  to  50,000.  Speedily 
officials  grew  weary  of  the  monotonous  life  of  the  town 
and  attempted  to  resume  their  residence  in  Buenos 
Ayres,  going  out  to  La  Plata  in  the  morning  and 
returning  in  the  evening.  Prompt  measures  were  taken 
to  prevent  these  desertions,  and  members  of  the  civil 
service  were  required  tp  live  in  the  city.  The  land 
speculators  soon  began  to  realize  that  the  town  was  not 
going  ahead  as  rapidly  as  they  had  expected.  The 
prices  of  real  estate  dropped,  and  prudent  men  per- 
ceived that,  while  it  had  gained  a  large  population  with 
startling  facility,  there  were  grave  reasons  for  appre- 
hending that  it  would  not  continue  at  the  same  rate  of 
progress,  and  possibly  that  the  population  would  remain 
stationary.  All  attempts  to  convert  the  port  into  a 
commercial  centre  have  proved  futile.  La  Plata  lacks 
business  and  industrial  resources.  The  civil  service 
of  the  Provincial  Government  cannot  take  the  place 
of  an  enterprising  mercantile  element  in  developing  the 
trade  of  the  city. 


98  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

While  the  Argentine  people  seem  to  have  what  every 
other  Latin-American  race  except  the  Chilian  lacks, — 
something  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  energy  and  reserve  of 
power, —  they  are  easily  infatuated  with  specious  or  vis- 
ionary schemes.  The  imposing  array  of  stately  build- 
ings and  harbor  works  where  ten  years  ago  was  a  tract 
of  pasturage  ground  with  swamps  stretching  seaward  is 
a  monument  to  the  enterprise  of  the  nation ;  but  there 
was  lamentable  lack  of  judgment  in  the  attempt  to 
found  a  rival  capital  and  commercial  metropolis  so 
near  Buenos  Ayres.  Neither  the  city  nor  the  port  was 
needed,  and  the  millions  expended  upon  a  grandiose 
project,  which  enriched  a  small  group  of  politicians, 
adventurers,  and  land  speculators,  might  have  been  used 
more  wisely.  Bahia  Blanca  would  have  been  a  superior 
site,  since  it  lies  at  the  head  of  a  good  harbor  and  com- 
mands the  growing  trade  of  the  Rio  Negro  region  and 
of  Patagonia.  These  lands,  acquired  by  conquest  over 
Indian  tribes  and  by  a  convention  with  Chili,  are 
gradually  filling  up  with  settlers  and  assuming  com- 
mercial importance.  Bahia  Blanca  is  growing  rapidly, 
and  promises  to  become  the  chief  business  centre  on  the 
southern  coast.  If  the  provincial  seat  of  government 
had  been  located  there,  and  if  the  same  outlay  had  been 
expended  on  public  works  and  buildings,  its  commer- 
cial resources  would  have  contributed  to  its  progress. 
The  establishment  of  a  second  metropolis  at  La  Plata 
seemed  an  impossible  undertaking  and  for  that  very 
reason  fascinated  the  imaginations  of  the  projectors. 

When  one  witnesses  the  extraordinary  commercial 
activity  of  the  metropolis  of  the  Argentine  Republic, 
he  finds  it  easy  to  believe  anything  that  he  may  hear 
respecting  the  industrial  resources  and  development  of 


ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE  99 

the  country  which  lies  behind  it.  An  overland  journey 
is  almost  an  essential  safeguard  against  overweening 
credulity.  After  a  prolonged  stay  at  Buenos  Ayres  and 
La  Plata,  I  set  out  for  the  Andes  and  Chili,  halting  at 
the  chief  towns  on  the  way.  Travelling  expenses  in 
the  Argentine  range  with  the  hotel  bills  under  the  gen- 
eral conditions  of  inflated  prices.  An  exception  is  to 
be  made  with  reference  to  baggage,  which  is  checked 
without  extra  charge  to  one's  destination.  In  Brazil 
and  Chili  the  transfer  of  baggage  by  train  costs  a  third 
or  at  least  a  quarter  of  the  ordinary  passenger  fare;  but 
on  Argentine  railways  the  American  system  is  adopted, 
with  limitations  of  weight.  The  cars  are  not  luxu- 
rious, but  fairly  comfortable,  and  the  train  service  is 
good.  Coffee  is  served  on  the  night  trains  and  early 
in  the  morning,  and  at  the  restaurant  stations  break- 
fasts and  dinners  of  seven  or  eight  courses  are  pro- 
vided, wine  being  included.  One  has  to  pay  roundly 
in  cheap  money  for  these  privileges  of  wayside  refresh- 
ment, but  he  cannot  complain  of  being  hurried.  There 
is  an  ample  allowance  of  time  for  breakfast  or  dinner, 
and  the  most  deliberate  traveller  can  finish  his  coffee 
and  smoke  a  cigarette  before  there  are  any  signs  of 
commotion  on  the  platform. 

The  railway  to  Rosario  leads  up  the  Parand,  which 
with  the  Plate  forms  the  riverine  boundary  of  the  prov- 
ince of  Buenos  Ayres.  In  territorial  extent,  popula- 
tion, wealth,  and  agricultural  resources  this  is  the 
Empire  State  of  the  Argentine;  yet  it  seems  an  empty 
and  undeveloped  land  as  one  approaches  its  northern 
frontier.  Villages  are  infrequent;  farm  houses  are 
small  and  unpretentious;  and  there  are  few  signs  of 
agricultural    activity.     The  province   is   an   unbroken 


100  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

plain,  nearly  121,000  English  square  miles  in  extent. 
Rapid  as  the  movement  of  immigration  has  been  during 
the  last  decade,  even  the  most  populous  State  has  vast 
tracts  of  unoccupied  land  and  its  cultivated  sections 
appear  untenanted.  The  Argentine  can  support  a  pop- 
ulation a  hundred  times  as  great  as  it  now  has,  and  it 
will  not  then  seem  crowded.  In  1875  there  were 
825,492  acres  cultivated,  and  in  1890  there  were  5,899,- 
895.  acres,  mainly  in  wheat.  Amazing  as  the  ratio  of 
increase  is,  there  is  only  one  per  cent  of  the  entire  area 
under  tillage.  The  traveller  who  passes  an  afternoon 
on  the  road  between  Buenos  Ayres  and  Rosario  finds  it 
hard  to  believe  that  this  is  the  centre  of  the  pastoral 
industries  of  the  Argentine.  In  1888  there  were 
70,000,000  sheep  and  23,000,000  cattle  in  the  country, 
and  more  than  one-half  of  the  stock  was'  in  the  prov- 
ince of  Buenos  Ayres. 

At  Rosario  I  found  a  comfortable  English  hotel,  an 
excellent  club  frequented  by  foreign  residents,  and  a 
thi-iving  rather  than  an  attractive  city.  It  has  been 
rapidly  built,  and  contains  few  structures  of  architect- 
ural merit.  There  is  a  well-shaded  plaza,  with  a  large 
church,  and  there  are  2500  acres  of  shops  and  houses, 
with  a  few  public  buildings,  banks,  and  ambitious  ware- 
houses. The  growth  of  Rosario  is  phenomenal  even 
for  a  progressive  country.  In  1854  it  had  a  population 
of  4300;  in  1870,  only  21,000;  and  now  it  has  over 
70,000,  being  the  second  city  of  the  Argentine.  Its 
foreign  trade  has  increased  during  the  same  period  from 
84,000,000  to  180,000,000.  English,  French,  Ger- 
man, Italian,  and  Belgian  steamers  now  load  and 
unload  in  its  harbor.  Rosario  can  never  hope  to  rival 
Buenos  Ayres,  but  it  is  destined  to  become   a  manu- 


ACROSS  THE   ARGENTINE  101 

facturing  and  shipping  centre  of  great  importance. 
It  is  making  the  most  of  its  chances  for  competing 
with  the  metropolis.  It  is  supplying  all  the  appli- 
ances required  for  handling  a  great  share  of  the  export 
and  import  trade.  It  is  one  of  our  own  spirited  and 
wide-awake  western  cities,  reduced  to  south  latitude, 
painted  in  garish  hues  of  blue  and  yellow,  and  Euro- 
peanized  in  its   habits  and  tastes. 

Rosario  is  the  metropolis  of  the  province  of  Santa 
F^,  which  has  been  the  chief  forcing-bed  of  those  agri- 
cultural colonies  to  which  the  Argentine  owes  a  large 
portion  of  its  progress  during  the  last  twenty  years. 
These  colonies  are  communities  of  farms  operated  by 
Italian,  Spanish,  Swiss,  or  French  immigrants.  The 
National  and  Provincial  Governments  have  vied  with 
each  other  in  offering  liberal  terms  to  incoming  immi- 
grants. Everything  has  been  done  to  draw  Europeans 
from  the  overcrowded  countries  of  the  Mediterranean 
into  the  pampas.  During  1889  free  transportation  was 
offered,  until  the  swarming  of  jDaupers  and  the  blind 
compelled  a  halt.  In  every  modern  tongue  the  Argen- 
tine has  been  proclaimed  to  be  the  Eden  and  the  El 
Dorado  of  the  New  World.  Immigrants  have  been 
welcomed  from  every  quarter,  and  they  have  been 
allowed  to  retain  their  national  characteristics  and  race 
sympathies  in  settlements  or  communities  where  their 
own  language  is  spoken.  The  colonies  have  been  at 
once  popular  with  new  settlers  who  desired  to  live 
among  those  of  their  own  race  and  tongue,  and  suc- 
cessful as  land  speculations.  No  more  effective  ex- 
pedient for  stimulating  immigration  has  ever  been 
devised. 

Admirable  as  the  enterprise  of  the  Argentine  nation 


102  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

has  been  in  developing  the  resources  of  an  unoccupied 
domain  by  the  establishment  of  colonies  and  systematic 
encouragement  of  immigration,  it  is  necessary  to  qual- 
ify praise  with  condemnation  of  the  speculative  spirit 
in  which  these  processes  have  been  conducted.  The 
government  has  not  adopted  the  American  system  of 
dividing  the  public  land  into  tracts  and  selling  the 
smallest  subdivision  of  a  section  at  a  fixed  price  per 
acre.  It  has  sold  land  at  auction  by  the  square  league, 
or  by  blocks  of  several  hundreds  of  leagues.  The  gov- 
ernment confined  its  transactions  to  Argentine  specu- 
lators and  foreign  capitalists,  who  would  be  left  to  deal 
with  the  immigrants  and  to  induce  them  to  purchase  at 
high  rates  on  credit.  The  system  by  which  landowners 
were  enabled  to  have  their  estates  appraised  and  then 
to  obtain  cedulas  from  the  mortgage  banks  for  one-half 
the  valuation  has  not  aided  immigrants,  but  on  the 
contrary  has  stimulated  reckless  land  speculation. 
Before  the  collapse  of  Argentine  credit,  settlers  who 
had  been  in  the  country  for  ten  or  fifteen  years  seemed 
to  have  a  share  in  the  artificial  prosperity  of  the  infla- 
tion period.  Their  own  holdings  had  doubled  in  value, 
and  if  the  cost  of  living  was  very  high  every  bushel  of 
wheat  and  every  pound  of  wool  which  they  sold  was 
never  worth  less  than  its  real  value  in  gold  and  its 
equivalent  in  depreciated  paper.  Those  who  had  re- 
cently entered  the  field  and  had  paid  high  prices  for 
their  land,  running  heavily  into  debt  for  it,  had  no 
compensations  for  inflation  prices.  In  the  evolution  of 
wise  finance,  when  the  currency  of  the  country  is  con- 
tracted, the  issues  of  cedulas  suspended,  and  the  gold 
basis  restored,  the  old  settlers  will  inevitably  find  that 
much  of  their  vaunted  progress  is  fictitious,  and  with 


ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE  103 

the  shrinkage  in  prices  the  Argentine  may  be  once 
more  a  good  field  for  immigrants. 

From  Rosario  I  took  a  night  train  for  Cordova  to  get 
a  glimpse  of  the  mediaeval  in  South  American  Yankee- 
lands.  That  quaint  city,  founded  by  Cabrera  in  1573, 
was  the  chief  seat  of  Jesuit  learning  in  South  America 
for  two  centuries.  A  university  was  established  in  the 
town  as  early  as  1613.  A  printing-press  was  set  in 
motion,  and  the  first  books  published  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  Andes  were  edited  and  revised  by  learned 
Jesuit  priests  connected  with  the  college.  Cordova  has 
not  lost  the  aspect  of  an  old  Spanish  town.  La  Plata 
has  been  built  within  ten  years;  Rosario,  after  a  lan- 
guishing existence  for  150  years,  is  now  a  flourishing 
centre  of  commercial  enterprise ;  and  Buenos  Ayres 
with  all  its  vicissitudes  of  fortune  and  financial  reverses 
remains  the  marvel  of  the  southern  hemisphere.  The 
coast  cities  belong  to  the  present  age  of  intense  vital- 
ity and  speculative  industrial  development.  Cordova 
is  a  relic  of  mediieval  learning  and  religion  and  seems 
out  of  place  in  an  Argentine  of  mercantile  bustle  and 
financial  vagaries. 

My  first  stroll  in  Cordova  revealed  a  city  of  antique 
churches,  time-worn  and  battered  towers,  and  blackened 
domes.  Fronting  on  the  central  plaza  stood  the  cathe- 
dral with  its  oriental  faQade,  double  towers,  and  mas- 
sive dome.  The  interior  was  cold  and  bare,  but  I  had 
seen  nothing  in  South  America  more  picturesque  than 
this  grim,  battlemented  pile,  built  as  if  its  founders 
meant  it  to  be  a  stronghold  of  historic  faith.  Not  far 
away  was  the  Jesuit  church  with  medallion  paintings 
of  the  chief  saints  of  the  order,  and  a  ceiling  of  carved 
cedar  reputed   to  have   been    pieced   together  without 


104  TROPICAL    AMERICA 

hammer  or  sci'ew.  The  Jesuit  missionaries  here,  as  in 
Paraguay,  taught  the  native  converts  to  be  expert  wood- 
carvers,  and  this  is  one  of  the  oldest  samples  of  their 
work.  The  metal  with  which  it  is  ornamented  came 
from  Peru.  The  art  may  be  crude  and  the  shabby 
building  itself  sorely  in  need  of  repairs,  but  when  one 
has  seen  hundreds  of  bad  copies  of  Renaissance  churches 
of  southern  Europe,  an  honest  bit  of  media3val  archi- 
tecture has  the  effect  of  a  startling,  albeit  agreeable, 
surprise.  There  are  a  dozen  other  crumbling  churches, 
monasteries,  and  convents,  filled  with  bad  painting  and 
black  with  cobwebs  and  dust. 

There  were  signs  of  the  outbreak  of  a  restoration 
mania  in  the  ecclesiastical  structures.  Decorators  were 
at  work  in  several  churches,  and  new  tones  of  color 
contrasted  strangely  with  the  faded  paintings  and  time- 
stained  altars.  Meditevalism,  while  venerable  and 
picturesque,  has  its  disadvantages.  Cordova  suffers  in 
a  material  sense  from  having  the  reputation  of  being 
old  and  musty.  The  florid  modern  architecture  of  the 
new  public  buildings  is  a  loud  protest  against  reaction- 
ary tendencies  which  have  retarded  its  progress.  Ornate 
as  these  handsome  structures  are,  they  are  not  to  be 
compared  for  grace  and  beauty  with  the  old  Moorish 
cabildo  adjoining  the  cathedral.  That  has  simplicity 
and  symmetry  in  keeping  with  the  general  lines  of 
architecture  of  an  antiquated  Spanish  town.  The 
university  is  as  quaint  as  either  the  cathedral  or  the 
cabildo.  It  occupies  a  quadrangle  and  while  revealing 
the  ravages  of  time  is  stately  and  impressive.  On  one 
side  is  the  graduation  hall  with  a  full-length  portrait 
of  the  worthy  bishop  who  founded  the  college  early 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  exhausting  his  private  for- 


ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE  105 

tune  in  his  zeal  for  good  letters.  The  class-rooms  are 
spacious  cloisters  approached  from  a  flight  of  marble 
steps.  It  was  the  summer  vacation,  and  I  could  not  tell 
how  large  were  the  swarms  of  students  rifling  the  honey 
of  wisdom  from  the  flower  of  learning.  There  was  a 
chemical  laboratory  well  stocked  with  apparatus,  and 
I  learned  that  a  staff  of  German  professors  was  ordi- 
narily employed  in  teaching  natural  science. 

From  Cordova  I  hastened  on  to  the  Andes.  A  rail- 
way ride  of  480  miles  carried  me  across  the  pampas  to 
the  gateways  of  the  Andes.  From  east  to  west  there 
was  a  sea  of  green,  discolored  and  turgid  where  there 
were  shoals  of  weeds  and  thistles,  and  more  vivid  in  hue 
where  the  soil  was  deep  and  rich.  The  long  white  tufts 
of  pampa  grass  had  the  effect  of  waves,  especially  when 
the  wind  blew  in  furious  gusts.  Here  and  there  ap- 
peared a  weather-beaten  barn  like  the  sail  of  a  Brazilian 
catamaran ;  far  away  were  sighted  the  masts  of  poplars 
swaying  with  the  wind-,  and  a  tiny  puff  of  smoke 
rose  from  a  distant  farm-house  as  from  the  funnel  of  a 
freighter  at  sea.  At  the  close  of  day,  as  the  wind  fresh- 
ened into  a  gale,  the  billows  of  coarse  grass  seemed  to 
break  into  yellow  foam,  and  the  trees  to  bend  under  the 
weight  of  leafy  canvas,  like  vessels  in  distress.  It  was 
a  trick  of  imagination  that  transformed  the  scene  and 
imparted  adventitious  interest  to  a  monotonous  prospect 
by  suggesting  an  ocean  vista.  Those  broad  stretches 
of  tangled  and  luxuriant  grass  had  neither  beauty  nor 
charm  of  their  own.  The  ocean  is  infinite  in  variety 
and  never  dull.  The  midsummer  pampas  can  never  be 
anything  but  wearisome. 

In  the  earlier  stages  of  this  journey  long  files  of  pop- 
lars were  often  seen  and  clumps  of  willows  in  marshy 


106  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

spots  along  the  banks  of  streams ;  but  beyond  the  rail- 
Avay  junction  at  Villa  Maria  the  wide  circuit  of  the 
horizon  could  be  swept  with  a  glass  without  a  glimpse 
of  trees  or  human  habitation.  The  pampas  are  seen  at 
their  best  early  in  the  spring  when  the  verdure  is  fresh, 
but  it  is  not  long  before  the  levels  are  broken  by  thistles 
which  grow  to  great  height.  These  blossom  about 
Christmas  time,  and  throughout  January  the  air  is  thick 
with  floating  thistle-down.  Then  these  rank  weeds 
droop  and  fall  away,  and  as  winter  approaches  and  the 
drought  passes  the  grass  levels  are  again  green.  For 
a  week  before  I  left  Cordova  the  weather  had  been 
sultry  and  sweltering;  but  in  the  early  morning  at 
Villa  Maria,  I  suffered  intensely  from  cold  while  I  was 
waiting  for  a  connecting  train.  Fifty  Italian  immi- 
grants lay  on  the  station  floor  mummied  in  blankets,  and 
so  benumbed  with  cold  that  they  ceased  to  chatter  in 
the  language  of  their  sunny  land.  The  pampero,  with 
its  chill  breath,  was  blowing  the  foam  of  the  thistle- 
down over  the  grassy  plains.  It  is  a  cold  but  invigo- 
rating wind,  and  tempers  the  inclement  heat  of  mid- 
summer. 

The  country  between  Cordova  and  Mendoza  reveals 
few  signs  of  that  phenomenal  prosperity  which  statisti- 
cians like  Mr.  ]\Iulhall  demonstrate  with  facility.  The 
farmhouses  are  either  thatched  huts  or  dilapidated 
hovels;  the  barns  are  small;  orchards  are  insignificant 
clumps;  and  the  villages  and  towns  are  forlorn  and 
desolate.  Villa  Maria,  Rio  Cuarto,  and  Villa  Mercedes 
are  towns  which  have  been  linked  together  by  costly 
lines  of  railway.  Their  names  are  printed  in  large 
letters  on  the  railway  maps,  but  when  the  train  draws 
up  at  the  stations  their  insignificance  is  disclosed.    San 


ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE  107 

Luis  is  the  capital  of  a  province ;  but  it  is  a  neglected 
cluster  of  adobe  huts.  At  La  Paz  I  caught  a  glimpse 
of  Tupungato,  one  of  the  great  peaks  of  the  Andes,  a 
mountain  22,100  feet  high.  The  pampas  had  been 
passed  and  the  hill  country  of  Mendoza  had  been 
entered.  From  Santa  Rosa  westward  there  were  con- 
tinuous lines  of  poplars  and  meadows  artificially 
watered  where  the  cattle  looked  sleek  and  fat.  As 
Mendoza  was  approached  comfortable  farmhouses  were 
seen  for  the  first  time  during  this  long  railway  ride, 
and  vineyards  and  orchards  gave  promise  of  a  rich  fruit- 
growing region. 

Mendoza  is  at  once  an  old  and  a  new  town.  It  was 
founded  by  Spaniards  from  Chili  in  1559,  and  it  was 
destroyed  by  an  earthquake  in  1861.  The  streets  are 
broad  and  lined  with  black-walnut  and  handsome  shade 
trees.  There  are  numerous  parks  with  a  fine  display  of 
foliage  and  flowers.  There  are  signs  of  thrift  and  com- 
fort everywhere,  except  in  the  hotels  which  are  ex- 
tremely bad.  There  is  a  population  of  35,000,  which 
is  rapidly  increasing  in  consequence  of  emigration  from 
Chili.  The  town  standing  near  the  entrance  to  the 
Uspallata  Pass,  the  highroad  over  the  mountains, 
already  is  the  chief  centre  of  trade  with  the  Western 
Republic.  Every  day  during  the  summer  months  long 
trains  of  pack-mules  are  set  in  motion  over  the  Andes. 
The  mountaineer,  with  his  poncho,  or  shawl-cape,  the 
first  characteristic  South  American  garment  which  I 
had  seen  in  the  course  of  a  long  journey,  is  a  familiar 
figure  in  tlie  streets.  The  tinkle  of  the  mule-bell  and 
the  crack  of  the  muleteer's  whip  may  be  heard  at  any 
hour  of  the  day  on  the  highroad  leading  to  the  Para- 
millos.     It  is    a   flourishing  transportation  trade   that 


108  TKOPICAL    AISIERICA 

will   be   ruined  when   the    Trans-Andean   Railway   is 
completed. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  ambitious  railway  projects  in 
South  America.  It  is  designed  to  furnish  direct  com- 
munication between  Valparaiso  and  Buenos  Ayres  by  a 
railway  crossing  the  Cordilleras  at  an  elevation  of  over 
10,000  feet  above  sea  level.  The  original  surveys  out- 
lined a  forty-inch  gauge  from  Mendoza  to  Santa  Rosa 
de  Los  Andes,  a  distance  of  159  miles  through  Uspal- 
lata  Pass,  and  contemplated  an  expenditure  of  $9,000,- 
000  in  gold.  The  survey  and  estimates  have  been 
repeatedly  readjusted,  and  the  probable  cost  of  the  rail- 
way is  now  anybody's  guess.  The  Argentine  and 
Chilian  Governments  are  supporting  this  costly  trans- 
continental enterprise,  which  will  probably  be  com- 
pleted and  in  operation  by  1895.  The  first  section 
follows  the  Mendoza  River  to  Punta  de  las  Vacas,  a 
distance  of  91  miles,  with  a  rise  of  one  in  every  one 
hundred  feet.  Thence  to  the  entrance  of  the  tunnel  of 
the  Cumbre,  or  summit  of  the  Cordillera,  there  will  be 
a  rise  of  one  in  thirty-eight  feet  for  twenty-five  miles. 
The  tunnel  will  be  over  two  miles  long,  and  a  mag- 
nificent engineering  work.  The  descent  from  the 
western  mouth  of  the  tunnel  will  be  very  steep  to  Tam- 
billos,  River  Juncal,  and  Santa  Rosa,  the  ratio  for  a 
portion  of  the  distance  being  one  in  five  feet.  The 
tunnel  and  the  curving  inclines  on  the  Chilian  side  are 
the  difficult  portions  of  the  work.  The  Argentine 
section  while  it  has  been  built  with  facility  will  be 
exposed  to  freshets  in  the  Uspallata  gorge,  and  grave 
doubts  are  entertained  respecting  the  practicability  of 
adequately  protecting  the  railway.  My  subsequent 
observations  in  crossing  the  mountains  by  the  Uspallata 


ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE  109 

convinced  m^  that  a  considerable  portion  of  the  railway 
will  have  to  be  regraded  and  rebuilt.  Henry  Meiggs 
would  never  have  tolerated  the  sharp  curves  and  steep 
grades  which  are  to  be  seen  on  this  railway,  nor  Avould 
he  have  underrated  the  risks  from  floods  in  the  mighty 
gorge  of  the  Mendoza,  as  the  engineers  have  done  for 
the  sake  of  cheapening  the  cost  of  construction. 

The  railway  sj^stem  of  the  Argentine,  of  which  the 
Trans-Andean  will  be  the  connecting  link  with  the 
Pacific  lines,  is  the  main  source  of  its  recent  progress. 
By  the  olhcial  returns  published  in  1889  it  consisted  of 
4841  miles  in  operation,  599  under  construction,  and 
2744  under  survey.  These  lines  carried  8,373,500 
passengers  and  3,950,000  tons  of  freight  in  1888,  and 
7,173,500  passengers  and  3,866,523  tons  of  freight  in 
1887.  This  was  a  large  business  for  a  country  with  a 
population  of  4,000,000.  Nearly  all  these  roads  have 
been  built  under  government  guarantees  at  extravagant 
cost.  The  provincial  legislatures,  as  well  as  the  Na- 
tional Government,  have  been  prevailed  upon  to  assist 
new  railway  enterprises,  and  a  large  amount  of  in- 
debtedness has  been  rolled  up  in  this  way.  The  Argen- 
tine people  have  had  implicit  faith  in  railway  extension 
as  a  means  of  attracting  immigrants  and  developing 
agricultural  resources.  In  a  new  country  roads  of  some 
kind  must  be  provided,  and  steam  railways  are  con- 
sidered a  better  investment  than  public  highways. 
Heavy  burdens  have  been  assumed  by  the  various 
governments ;  but  the  best  of  these  enterprises  are  on 
a  self-sustaining  basis,  and  some  of  them  have  been 
paying  dividends.  In  1889  the  National  Government 
declared  that  it  would  not  grant  any  additional  favors 
to  railway  companies;    but  as    soon  as    Congress   met 


110  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

several  new  lines  were  sanctioned,  and  interest  on  their 
bonds  was  guaranteed.  The  financial  embarrassments 
of  the  nation  involved  before  the  close  of  the  year 
a  suspension  of  all  public  works  except  the  Trans- 
Andean  and  a  few  railways  under  construction  in  the 
interior.  In  1890  arrangements  were  made  with  rail- 
way contractors  to  limit  construction  to  the  completion 
of  a  few  lines  and  branches  which  were  nearly  ready  to 
be  turned  over  to  the  public  service.  In  1891  all  the 
railway  corporations  suffered  from  the  paralysis  of  the 
industrial  resources  of  the  country,  and  the  virtual 
bankruptcy  of  the  national  and  provincial  treasuries, 
so  that  the  extension  and  completion  of  the  system 
were  indefinitely  deferred. 

While  the  rate  of  railway  progress  has  been  markedly 
in  advance  of  the  practical  requirements  of  the  country, 
the  financial  embarrassments  are  to  be  attributed  to 
other  causes.  The  wonderful  progress  of  the  nation 
has  been  largely  promoted  by  railway  enterprise,  and 
when  the  period  of  business  stagnation  and  disorder 
comes  to  an  end  the  system  will  probably  be  found  a 
remunerative  investment.  The  Argentine  has  in  its 
railways  all  the  facilities  for  rapid  transportation  and 
industrial  development  which  will  be  required  for 
another  generation.  It  is  a  system  which  not  only 
opens  all  the  provinces  to  European  settlement,  but 
reaches  out  in  the  north  toward  the  fertile  plateau  of 
Bolivia  and  westward  to  the  Pacific.  My  own  ob- 
servations extended  to  five  of  the  principal  railways, 
and  I  found  little  to  criticise  and  much  to  admire  in 
the  general  management  of  these  lines.  I  carried  my 
baggage  checked  on  the  American  plan,  from  Buenos 
Ayres  to   Mendoza,  via   Rosario,  Cordova,  and   Villa 


ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE  111 

Maria,  and  had  it  delivered  promptly  at  the  terminus ; 
and  at  no  point  in  the  course  of  1200  miles  of  railway 
travel  in  the  Argentine  did  I  suffer  from  detention  or 
accident. 

What  is  true  of  railway  capital  and  management 
applies  also  to  public  works,  harbor  improvements, 
banking  institutions,  and  commercial  enterprises  of  all 
kinds.  English  money  has  gone  into  everything,  and 
ordinarily  large  returns,  in  dividends  and  profits,  have 
been  received.  The  Argentine  has  been  largely  cre- 
ated and  developed  by  English  enterprise  and  invest- 
ments. If  it  has  gone  too  far  in  railway  building, 
land  speculation,  immigration  measures,  cedula  expan- 
sion, overtrading  in  imports,  and  currency  inflation, 
the  responsibility  for  temporary  disorder  of  the  finances 
largely  rests  witli  English  capitalists,  who  have  been 
ready  to  float  every  projected  enterprise  offering  prom- 
ise of  high  percentages  of  interest. 

The  inflation  of  the  currency  was  the  chief  cause  of 
the  financial  disorders.  The  government  after  legaliz- 
ing the  suspension  of  specie  payments  by  the  banks,  and 
making  their  paper  issues  a  legal  tender  for  debts  and 
customs,  passed  a  free  banking  law.  The  banks  were 
required  to  deposit  with  the  national  bank  85  per  cent 
of  gold  as  a  guarantee  of  the  redemption  of  new  issues; 
but  at  the  end  of  two  years  the  gold  could  be  withdrawn 
for  the  reduction  of  the  foreign  debt.  The  banks  in 
depositing  gold  received  bonds  which  they  exchanged 
for  notes  of  issue.  The  volume  of  currency  was  in- 
creased from  11)60,000,000  to  *1  GO,  000, 000  in  a  short 
period.  Many  of  the  banks,  with  the  connivance  of 
the  administration,  deposited  promises  to  pay  gold  in 
place  of  the  coin  itself,  and  issued  paper  on  the  strength 


112  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

of  bonds  illegally  obtained.  One  bank  obtained  a 
credit  for  $1,275,000  of  gold  without  having  a  dollar 
on  deposit,  and  on  the  strength  of  this  fictitious  capi- 
tal was  converted  into  a  paper  mill  for  the  manufacture 
of  money.  All  the  paper  money  was  nominally  guar- 
anteed by  gold  bonds  ;  but  these  never  represented  more 
than  -$60,000,000  in  actual  coin.  At  least  $100,000,000 
was  guaranteed  by  paper  alone.  As  time  went  on 
these  issues  exceeded  $250,000,000.  This  inflation 
movement  followed  a  long  period  of  persistent  over- 
trading, by  which  the  market  was  overstocked  Avith 
European  manufactures,  and  gold  was  drained  out  of 
it  in  the  settlement  of  balances  of  trade  created  by 
excessive  importations. 

Simultaneously  there  were  mortgage  bonds  known  as 
cedulas  on  which  interest  was  guaranteed  either  by  the 
National  or  by  the  Provisional  Government.  Under  the 
land-borrowing  laws  the  owner  of  a  stock-farm  or  tract 
of  territory  could  obtain  from  mortgage  banks  cedulas 
to  the  amount  of  one-half  of  the  valuation  of  his  prop- 
erty. These  he  could  sell  in  the  market  for  what  he 
could  get  for  them.  The  country  was  flooded  with 
these  depreciated  bonds.  The  two  leading  mortgage 
banks  increased  their  issues  of  cedulas  from  $275,- 
000,000  in  1887  to  $514,000,000  in  1889,  and  the  pro- 
vincial banks  added  largely  to  the  volume.  Cedulas 
became  a  popular  European  investment.  The  system 
stimulated  land  speculation,  artificially  raised  the  value 
of  farms,  and  intensified  the  evils  of  inflation  at  a 
period  when  the  indebtedness  of  the  nation,  the  prov- 
inces, and  the  capital  had  risen  from  $322,596,544  to 
$574,068,446  at  the  beginning  of  1889.  The  nation 
had  contracted  its  debt  mainly  for  the  construction  of 


ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE  113 

railways  and  public  works.  The  provinces  had  been 
bonded  for  similar  enterprises,  and  for  the  purchase  of 
national  securities  to  be  used  by  their  own  banks  as  a 
basis  for  paper  issues. 

From  1887  to  1889  the  inflation  of  the  currency  pro- 
duced speculative  activity  such  as  was  never  before 
known  in  Spanish  America.  Then  came  an  inexplica- 
ble reaction,  when  every  stock  operator  began  to  look 
about  for  gold  and  to  hoard  it.  One  day  it  was  an- 
nounced that  the  directors  of  the  national  bank  had 
decided  to  pass  a  dividend.  Gold  began  to  rise  by 
leaps  and  bounds,  and  stocks  of  all  kinds  fell  like 
rocket-sticks.  The  finance  minister  concluded  with 
singular  fatuity  that  the  high  premiums  were  caused  by 
scarcity  of  gold,  and  that  all  that  it  was  necessary  to  do 
in  order  to  restore  paper  money  to  par  was  to  throw 
850,000,000  of  the  government's  coin  reserve  into  the 
market.  The  gold  brokers  fought  over  it  like  wolves, 
and  wanted  what  remained  in  the  treasury.  Passing 
from  one  folly  to  another,  the  government  issued  a 
decree  prohibiting  brokers  from  making  public  sales  of 
gold  or  from  quoting  the  price  on  the  stock  board. 
This  ended  the  career  of  Finance  Minister  Varela,  and 
Dr.  Pacheco,  the  author  of  the  Free  Banking  Bill,  was 
recalled  to  office.  He  at  once  reopened  the  bolsa  to 
gold  transactions,  and  submitted  two  bills  to  the  cham- 
bers for  contracting  the  paper  currency,  which  were 
immediately  passed.  One  of  these  measures  graduall}^ 
withdrcAV  141,000,000  of  notes  of  the  national  bank  by 
monthly  surrenders  up  to  June  1,  1891.  The  other 
law  decreed  the  reduction  of  other  bank  issues  after 
that  date,  until  tlie  total  volume  of  the  paper  currency 
should  not  exceed  $100,000,000. 


114  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

These  measures  slightly  raised  in  February,  1890, 
when  I  was  in  the  Argentine,  the  value  of  the  paper 
dollar,  which  had  been  worth  only  forty-five  cents.  If 
this  contraction  movement  could  have  been  continued 
without  interruption  there  would  have  been  a  gradual 
shrinkage  of  prices,  and  an  equilibrium  between  gold 
and  paper  would  have  been  finally  established.  But 
there  were  too  many  corrupt  officials  and  political 
adventurers  interested  in  the  revival  of  stock  specula- 
tion to  permit  the  continuance  of  conservative  financial 
methods.  Gold  again  began  to  rise  in  March,  and 
before  the  revolution  of  July,  1890,  there  was  a  general 
panic.  Blind  confidence  was  converted  into  absolute 
distrust.  President  Pellegrini  subsequently  compared 
the  situation  to  the  overwrought  condition  of  an  army 
when  a  single  gunshot  suffices  to  produce  general  con- 
fusion and  defeat.  A  credulous  nation  was  trans- 
formed into  a  nation  of  panic-mongers,  doubting  the 
solvency  of  the  banks  and  forcing  them  to  suspend 
business,  hoarding  gold  and  sending  it  higher  and 
higher,  and  ready  in  a  spirit  of  moral  depression  and 
madness  to  believe  that  there  were  greater  depths  of 
despondency  into  which  all  were  doomed  to  plunge. 

One  of  the  statisticians  published  in  a  daily  journal, 
while  I  was  in  Buenos  Ayres,  a  comparative  exhibit  of 
the  expenditures  for  brass  bands  and  schools  in  the 
interior  provinces  of  the  Argentine.  In  San  Luis  the 
bands  cost  as  much  as  the  schools,  and  in  Rioja  nearly 
four  times  as  much.  Even  in  provinces,  where  the 
governors  were  paid  the  smallest  salaries,  there  was 
always  an  elastic  margin  in  the  annual  budgets  for 
appropriations  for  brass  bands.  In  all  the  Argentine 
towns  there  were  open-air  concerts  afternoon  and  even- 


ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE  115 

ing  attended  by  throngs  of  saiinterers.  So  long  as  the 
populace  was  entertained  by  brass  bands,  it  was  readily 
induced  to  believe  that  government  was  by  and  for  the 
people.  While  the  Argentines  made  a  business  of 
politics  and  talked  of  nothing  else,  they  bestowed  little 
thought  upon  their  institutions  and  their  relations  as 
citizens.  The  political  cabals  governed  and  the  people 
were  kept  in  good  humor  and  constantly  amused.  That 
was  where  the  brass  band  came  in.  It  was  political 
government  reduced  to  a  system  of  practical  simplicity. 
The  Argentine  constitutional  system  in  its  outward 
form  corresponds  closely  to  that  of  the  United  States. 
The  States  have  elective  governors  of  their  own,  and 
are  each  represented  in  the  upper  house  by  two  sena- 
tors chosen  for  nine  years.  The  members  of  the  lower 
house  are  elected  on  the  basis  of  population  for  four 
years.  The  President  is  chosen  by  an  electoral  college. 
He  aj)points  his  own  cabinet  and  wields  unrestricted 
executive  authority.  There  is  a  supreme  court  mod- 
elled after  the  judiciary  of  the  United  States.  The 
American  constitution  is  reproduced  in  south  latitude, 
but  the  inward  grace  of  enlightened  public  opinion  is 
lacking,  and  political  practice  falls  below  the  level  of  a 
self-governing  democracy.  Congress  enacts  laws,  but 
the  President  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  armj'-,  and 
as  the  head  of  a  civil  service  dependent  upon  his  will 
and  caprice,  possesses  absolute  authority  in  administra- 
tion. The  country  is  governed  by  executive  decrees 
rather  than  by  constitutional  laws.  Elections  are 
carried  by  military  pressure  and  manipulation  of  the 
civil  service.  Wliile  the  President  is  ineligible  for 
re-election  after  holding  office  for  six  years,  he  controls 
the  choice  of  his  successor.     President  Roca  virtually 


116  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

nominated  and  elected  his  b^other-in-la^y,  Juarez  Cai- 
man, as  his  successor.  President  Juarez  set  his  heart 
upon  controlling  the  succession  in  the  interest  of  one 
of  his  relatives,  a  prominent  official;  but  was  forced 
to  retire  before  he  could  carry  out  his  purpose.  The 
Plate  countries  have  been  accustomed  since  the  revolt 
against  Spain  to  the  periodical  assumption  of  absolute 
power  by  geneials  and  dictators,  and  are  not  startled 
by  a  close  approach  to  political  dictatorship  in  execu- 
tive administration. 

Nothing  in  the  Argentine  surprised  me  more  than 
the  boldness  and  freedom  with  which  the  press  attacked 
the  government  of  the  day  and  exposed  its  corruption. 
Every  morning  some  fresh  public  scandal  was  brought 
to  light,  and  ministers  were  arraigned  for  venality  and 
incompetence.  The  New  York  press  in  the  days  of  the 
Tweed  exposures  did  not  bristle  with  more  vehement 
denunciations  of  official  corruption  than  these  Argen- 
tine journals.  It  was  a  singular  phenomenon  which 
could  hardly  fail  to  impress  a  foreign  observer.  The 
government  paid  no  heed  to  these  attacks.  Ministers 
did  not  trouble  themselves  to  repel  charges  affecting 
their  integrity.  The  public  was  apathetic  and  inclined 
to  believe  that  the  newspapers  were  making  a  great 
ado  about  nothing.  Apparently  there  was  no  political 
party  benefiting  by  these  assaults  from  an  opposition 
press,  unless  there  was  an  attempt  to  revive  the  old- 
time  feeling  of  jealousy  between  the  national  capital 
and  the  confederated  provinces.  President  Juarez  being 
a  native  of  Cordova  and  disliked  by  the  Portenos,  or 
inhabitants  of  Buenos  Ayres.  The  attitude  of  the 
administration  toward  these  censors  and  scandal- 
mongers was  one  of  undisguised  contempt.     Ministers 


ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE  117 

seemed  to  be  asking,  with  cynical  amusement,  Tweed's 
old  question,  "What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?" 
Meanwhile,  public  jobbery,  trading  in  concessions, 
illegal  banking  issues,  and  official  immorality  went  on 
without  restraint. 

This  wholesome  criticism  from  an  independent  press 
had  one  important  effect.  It  gave  direction  to  public 
opinion  in  the  capital,  and  involved  the  organization 
of  the  Uni6n  Civica.  If  the  country  had  not  been  on 
the  verge  of  a  financial  revulsion,  there  might  not  have 
been  the  revolt  against  the  Juarez  administration  in 
July,  1890;  but  with  ruin  and  disaster  confronting 
them,  men  turned  against  the  President  whose  incom- 
petence and  venality  would  have  been  condoned  if  the 
times  had  been  good.  The  Unidn  Civica  was  founded 
when  the  government  was  charged  with  maladministra- 
tion in  sanctioning  an  illegal  issue  of  $40,000,000  of 
pflper  money.  A  mass-meeting  held  one  Sunday  was 
the  largest  concourse  of  citizens  which  had  ever  assem- 
bled in  the  Plate  countries.  A  second  mass-meeting 
involved  the  reorganization  of  the  ministry,  and  the 
appointment  of  Dr.  Uriburu  as  Minister  of  the  Treasury. 
There  was  a  brief  interval  during  which  futile  attempts 
were  made  to  introduce  financial  reforms,  and  then  Dr. 
Uriburu  became  disheartened,  and  resigned  office. 
Secret  conferences  followed  between  the  leaders  of  the 
Uni6n  Civica,  General  Campos,  and  several  naval  com- 
manders. The  government  was  suddenly  confronted 
with  an  armed  coalition  of  the  best  battalions  of  the 
army,  the  entire  navy,  and  the  Uni6n  Civica. 

The  manifesto  issued  by  the  Revolutionary  Junta 
was  a  terrible  arraignment  of  the  political  crimes  of  the 
Juarez  Government.      T^ibcral  institutions  were  declared 


118  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

to  have  disappeared.  There  was  neither  republic,  nor 
federation,  nor  representative  government,  nor  admin- 
istration, nor  morality.  Political  life  had  become  a 
money-making  industry.  The  President  had  taken 
bribes  from  anybod}'^  having  dealings  with  the  nation, 
had  joined  syndicates  organized  for  vast  speculations 
dependent  upon  his  official  influence,  had  amassed  a 
fortune  at  the  expense  of  the  State,  and  had  corrupted 
the  consciences  of  innumerable  friends.  Avarice  had 
been  his  inspiration,  jobbery  his  occupation.  He  had 
debauched  the  administration  of  the  nation,  suppressed 
the  representative  system,  and  brought  the  country  to 
the  verge  of  bankruptcy.  Secret  emissions  of  cur- 
rency had  been  authorized  in  order  that  the  national 
bank  might  pay  false  dividends,  because  official  specu- 
lators had  bought  up  most  of  the  shares.  Commercial 
deposits  and  the  savings  of  the  working  classes  had 
been  distributed  among  a  circle  of  politicians,  living 
in  luxury  and  gambling  with  millions  which  were  not 
their  own.  More  than  $50,000,000  in  gold,  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  sale  of  public  bonds  deposited  with  the 
government  by  the  new  guaranteed  banks,  had  been 
thrown  into  the  whirlpool  of  speculation.  The  State 
railways  were  sold  to  reduce  the  public  debt,  and  the 
funds  thus  secured  were  misapplied.  The  sanitary 
works  were  sold  under  the  shadow  of  a  colossal  scandal. 
The  guaranteed  banks  had  exhausted  their  credit  in 
false  issues,  and  a  paper  currency  had  been  illegally 
increased  135,000,000  when  gold  was  quoted  at  300, 
and  1100,000,000  more  paper  money  had  been  disguised 
under  the  name  of  mortgage  bonds.  These  were  the 
principal  counts  in  the  indictment  framed  by  the  Uni6n 
Civica  in  justification  of  the  popular  uprising  against 


ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE  119 

the  most  corrupt  administration  ever  known  in  the 
annals  of  misgoverned  South  America. 

The  revolution  opened  with  every  prospect  of  success. 
It  failed  from  the  incapacity  of  the  leaders  to  co-operate 
harmoniously.  On  July  19,  1890,  the  defection  of  the 
army  was  discovered.  On  July  26  the  revolt  broke  out. 
For  four  days  there  was  bloodshed  without  definite  plan 
or  purpose.  No  determined  attack  was  made  upon  the 
government  palace.  The  fleet  opened  a  fantastic  bom- 
bardment upon  the  suburbs.  There  was  inexplicable 
mismanagement  of  the  insurgent  forces,  and  on  July 
29  an  ignominious  surrender  to  the  government  with  a 
proclamation  of  general  amnesty.  General  Roca  re- 
mained behind  the  scenes,  apparently  master  of  the 
situation,  while  President  Juarez  had  fled  to  a  place  of 
refuge  on  the  Rosario  railway,  and  two  factions  of  the 
army  were  playing  at  cross  purposes,  and  the  police  and 
the  volunteers  of  the  Uni6n  Civica  were  shooting 
women  and  children  in  the  streets.  Another  week  of 
hopeless  confusion  passed,  and  General  Roca  announced 
the  resignation  of  President  Juarez  and  the  succession 
of  vice-President  Pellegrini.  Then  the  city  was  illu- 
minated, and  for  three  days  there  was  a  pandemonium 
of  popular  rejoicing  over  a  victory  which  nobody  except 
General  Roca  understood.  The  Uni6n  Civica  assum- 
ing after  its  defeat  the  credit  for  a  victory  due  to  Gen- 
eral Roca's  dexterity  and  common  sense,  became  a 
national  organization  with  branches  in  every  town. 
It  was  not  long  before  it  was  rent  into  two  factions, 
and  playing  into  the  hands  of  General  Roca  and  the 
autonomists. 

In  June,  1891,  the  deplorable  state  of  Argentine 
finance  was  revealed  in  a  luminous  statement  made  by 


120  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

President  Pellegrini.  The  interest  service  on  the 
national  debt  had  been  suspended  for  three  years  under 
a  general  arrangement  made  with  the  English  creditors. 
All  public  works  requiring  payments  from  the  treasury 
had  been  abandoned  with  a  few  exceptions  subject  to 
special  contracts.  Large  reductions  had  been  made  in 
the  budget  of  expenditures  and  the  civil  service.  All 
business  interests  were  stagnant.  Immigration  had 
been  diverted  to  Brazil.  All  efforts  to  restore  public 
confidence  by  legislation  or  financial  combinations  had 
failed,  and  the  government  was  making  a  hopeless 
attempt  to  raise  $30,000,000  by  a  tariff  which  bore 
heavily  upon  consumers.  The  imports  had  declined 
and  the  revenues  with  them.  All  industries  were  pros- 
trated except  politics,  and  the  pernicious  activity  dis- 
played by  factions  was  an  evil  augury  for  the  return  of 
prosperity.  There  was  a  collapse  of  luxurious  living 
in  the  Argentine  capital.  The  dandies  were  content  to 
wear  their  old  clothes.  Showy  equipages  disappeared 
from  Palermo.  Costly  furniture  was  emptied  from 
palaces  into  auction-rooms.  Family  jewels  were  in 
the  pawn-shops,  many  of  the  speculators  were  forced 
to  leave  the  scene  of  their  prolonged  financial  debauch, 
and  to  retire  to  the  farms  where  they  had  grown  up  in 
poverty. 

The  Argentines  consider  themselves  the  Yankees  of 
the  southern  hemisphere ;  but  they  lack  both  the  practi- 
cal judgment  and  moral  qualities  of  the  New  England 
stock.  In  the  order  of  historical  settlement  their  coun- 
try is  old;  but  in  the  existing  stage  of  political  and 
industrial  development  it  is  new.  The  revolt  of  the 
Argentine  provinces  against  Spain,  in  1810,  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  sterile  period  of  civil  war,  military  dictator- 


ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE  121 

ship,  and  disunion.  It  was  not  until  1861,  when  the 
federal  republic  was  reconstituted  under  the  leadership 
of  Buenos  Ayres,  that  a  new  era  of  progressive  activity- 
opened.  For  twenty  years  jealousies  were  excited  by 
rival  aspirations  for  the  seat  of  the  National  Govern- 
ment, and  it  was  not  until  1881,  when  the  city  was 
selected  as  the  capital,  that  the  danger  of  disunion  and 
a  renewal  of  civil  war  was  averted.  During  thirty 
years  the  country  has  trebled  its  population,  its  in- 
crease being  relatively  much  more  rapid  than  that  of 
the  United  States  during  the  same  period.  The  esti- 
mate of  the  present  population  is  4,000,000  in  place  of 
1,160,000  in  1857.  Immigration  has  swept  up  the 
Plate  like  a  mighty  incoming  tide  during  the  last  dec- 
ade, and  the  pampas  have  been  filled  with  European 
settlers.  A  wheat  belt  of  enormous  extent  was  opened 
for  agriculture.  The  exports  of  wool,  flour,  hides,  jerked 
beef,  and  other  staples,  increased  from  #26,000,000  in 
1871  to  $100,000,000  in  1888,  while  the  importations 
rose  from  144,000,000  to  $128,000,000,  and  the  foreign 
carrying  trade  from  1,114,000  to  4,885,147  tons.  Thou- 
sands of  miles  of  railway  were  constructed;  public 
works  of  stupendous  magnitude  were  undertaken; 
schools  were  opened  in  all  the  provinces;  and,  in  a 
single  generation,  the  Argentine  people  made  a  record 
for  industrial  progress  which  could  not  be  equalled  in 
Spanish  America. 

The  ruin  wrought  in  this  wonderful  country  is  to  be 
attributed  to  blemishes  in  the  national  character  which 
were  aggravated  by  the  credulity  and  cupidity  of  Eng- 
lish investors.  The  Argentines,  lacking  original  force 
themselves,  have  been  the  most  imitative  people  in  the 
southern  hemisphere.     They  borrowed  all  their  politi- 


122  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

cal  ideas  from  the  American  constitution  without 
adapting  them  to  the  peculiar  conditions  of  their  own 
civilization.  They  looked  upon  immigration  as  the 
main  source  of  wealth  of  the  northern  republic,  and 
succeeded  in  diverting  a  considerable  share  of  the  sur- 
plus population  of  Southern  Europe  to  the  Plate.  As 
the  development  of  the  United  States  had  been  promoted 
by  railway  construction,  they  undertook  to  anticipate 
the  requirements  of  their  own  country  by  costly  public 
works  conducted  in  the  most  extravagant  way.  They 
seemed  to  be  rivalling  the  Yankees  in  material  prog- 
ress, and  English  investors,  tempted  by  the  high  rates 
of  interest,  supplied  them  with  financial  resources  for 
every  premature  undertaking  and  reckless  enterprise. 
The  Argentines  were  speedily  intoxicated  with  their 
own  success.  They  ceased  to  do  anything  for  them- 
selves. The  Italians  were  the  laborers  in  town  and 
country,  and  it  was  unnecessary  for  a  native  to  work. 
The  great  agricultural  staples  could  be  produced  in 
the  interior  by  foreigners,  and  all  manufactures  could 
be  imported  from  England,  France,  and  Germany  where 
there  was  cheap  labor.  Manufacturing  industries  were 
not  required  in  the  Argentine.  It  was  easier  to  import 
everything  from  Europe,  to  derive  a  great  revenue  from 
high  duties  for  the  support  of  the  government,  and  to 
equalize  exchanges  by  exporting  the  products  of  Italian 
labor  on  the  pampas.  The  function  of  the  Argentine 
was  to  govern  the  country,  to  speculate  in  land  and 
stocks,  and  to  live  in  luxurious  ease.  So  long  as 
immigrants  flocked  into  the  country  by  the  thousand, 
and  English  capital  was  drawn  in  by  the  million,  all 
went  well.  The  collapse  came  when  the  borrowing 
powers  of  the  nation  ceased  altogether  through  exces- 


ACROSS   THE   ARGENTINE  123 

sive  issues  of  paper  money  and  utter  demoralization  of 
financial  administration.  Then  in  their  extremity, 
when  their  speculative  bubbles  were  pricked,  they 
turned  and  upbraided  the  English  investors  for  teach- 
ing them  to  be  extravagant,  and  for  foolishly  lending 
money  to  them  without  examining  the  securities. 

Disastrous  as  the  results  of  political  government  and 
financial  disorder  have  been  in  the  Argentine,  its  ulti- 
mate recovery  by  slow  stages  is  probable.  It  has  a 
magnificent  railway  system,  an  industrious  working 
population  recruited  from  Europe,  and  nearly  all  the 
material  appliances  for  progress.  It  ranks  after  Brazil 
as  the  second  nation  in  South  America  in  territorial 
extent.  It  has  fourteen  States,  with  a  combined  area 
of  515,000  miles,  and  nine  territorial  provinces,  which 
swell  the  national  domain  to  1,125,086  miles,  or  less 
than  one-third  of  the  extent  of  the  United  States  with 
Alaska  included.  It  is  a  country  with  varied  agricul- 
tural resources.  In  the  northern  provinces  sugar  and 
cotton  can  be  raised.  Along  the  Cordilleras  there  is 
a  fruit-growing  region  equal  to  Southern  California. 
In  the  central  and  southern  provinces  there  is  a  wheat 
tract  of  enormous  extent,  where  prolific  crops  can  be 
raised,  and  there  are  wide  reaches  of  pampas  where 
sheep  and  cattle  can  be  pastured  under  the  most  favora- 
ble conditions.  The  northern  forests  abound  in  cabinet 
woods,  and  there  is  native  salt  all  along  the  south  coast, 
with  seas  fairly  alive  with  fish.  It  is  an  industrial 
empire  too  rich  in  natural  resources,  and  it  has  too  large 
a  population  of  European  workmen,  to  be  permanently 
ruined  by  a  financial  collapse  without  a  parallel  in  the 
history  of  nations.  The  Argentine  stock  is  destined  to 
disappear,   and  a  hybrid  European ized  race  will  take 


124  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

its  place.  Under  new  social  and  political  conditions 
prosperity  will  be  laboriously  regained.  Whatever  the 
future  may  have  in  store  for  the  Argentine,  its  recent 
experience  does  not  justif}'^  the  conclusion  that  it  is 
ever  safe  for  any  nation  to  make  agricultural  industries 
its  only  resource,  nor  to  be  brought  into  relations  of 
absolute  dependence  upon  foreign  capital  and  manu- 
factures, nor  to  engross  its  energies  with  politics,  to 
the  exclusion  of  everything  else. 


VII 

THE   HEART   OF   THE   ANDES 

A      PICTURESQUE      BUT      MENDACIOUS      GUIDE  —  MULE      RIDE 
THROUGH  USPALLATA  —  AN  ATTACK  OF  SORROCHE  —  FIRST 

GLIMPSE     OF     THE     HIGHEST     CORDILLERAS  ASCENT     OF 

THE    CUMBRE  —  ADVENTURES    WITH    A   DRUNKEN    GUIDE 

I  HAD  planned  waiting  in  Mendoza  several  days  until 
I  could  find  a  party  of  travellers  destined  for  Chili. 
A  poor  breakfast,  a  worse  dinner,  and  a  glimpse  of  the 
sleeping  room  where  I  was  to  pass  the  night,  induced  a 
feeling  of  sheer  desperation.  A  Chilian  guide  offered 
to  start  with  me  early  in  the  morning  for  the  Andes  and 
Santa  Rosa.  In  appearance  he  was  as  picturesque  a 
ruffian  as  I  ever  saw  off  the  lyric  stage.  He  wore  an 
Indian  poncho,  with  red  stripes  and  a  blue  ground,  a 
sleeveless  garment,  at  once  a  shawl  and  a  cape,  woven 
from  the  wool  of  the  guanaco.  A  large  scarlet  hand- 
kerchief, loosely  tied  about  his  head,  completed  his 
resemblance  to  the  brigand  of  melodrama.  He  took 
pains  to  explain  that  I  would  have  good  company,  as 
an  Englishman  was  going  with  him.  As  he  said  this 
his  eyes  rolled  uneasily,  and  I  knew  that  he  was  lying 
to  me.  But  the  hotel  was  irretrievably  bad;  inquiries 
for  parties  of  travellers  bound  for  the  Andes  had  proved 
futile;    and  I  was  in  hot  haste  to  go  on.      I  led  the 

125 


126  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

guide  to  the  station  in  order  to  obtain  the  opinion  of 
the  railway  officials,  to  whom  I  had  presented  letters  of 
introduction  from  Buenos  Ayres.  I  confided  to  them 
my  misgivings  respecting  his  honesty  and  trustworthi- 
ness. They  questioned  him  closely,  and  pronounced 
him  a  safe  man,  especially  as  he  was  recommended  at 
the  hotel.  This  last  consideration  had  little  weight 
with  me  since  I  had  eaten  two  vile  meals  there.  Still 
I  was  glad  to  be  reassured,  and  I  was  eager  to  cross 
the  mountains.  I  clinched  the  bargain  with  the  guide, 
and  after  ineffectual  effort  to  obtain  the  address  of 
the  mysterious  Englishman,  procured  supplies  for  the 
journey  of  five  days. 

At  daybreak  the  guide  stalked  into  my  room,  told  me 
that  it  was  time  to  start,  and  before  I  was  fairly  awake 
had  whipped  up  my  trunk  and  carried  it  out  where  the 
pack-mule  was  standing.  When  I  joined  him  a  few 
minutes  afterward  he  was  nonchalantly  smoking  a 
cigarette  and  smiling  blandly.  The  Englishman,  who 
was  to  have  gone  with  us,  had  suddenly  changed  his 
plans ;  but  there  was  another  traveller  who  was  to  join 
us  two  miles  up  the  road.  This  was  the  guide's  ex- 
planation of  the  absence  of  the  expected  travelling 
companion.  Evidently  the  Englishman  was  a  mythical 
personage  conjured  into  transitory  existence  for  the 
purpose  of  tricking  me  into  planning  the  journey. 
Prudence  dictated  a  halt  until  a  more  trustworthy  guide 
could  be  procured,  and  American  or  English  companions 
recruited.  But  I  was  weary  of  Mendoza  and  its  foul 
posadas;  and  there  was  my  mountain  steed,  saddled 
and  waiting  for  me,  with  my  baggage  already  on  the 
back  of  the  pack-mule.  I  lighted  a  cigarette,  hesitated, 
stared  at  the  guide,  whistled  "Yankee  Doodle,"  and 


THE  HEART  OF  THE  ANDES  127 

started.  We  rode  two  or  three  miles  to  the  outskirts 
of  the  cit}^  and  were  joined  by  the  other  traveller,  a 
Chilian  muleteer,  happily  with  a  face  that  inspired 
confidence.  Six  mules  were  added  to  the  three  already 
saddled.  After  delay,  caused  by  the  readjustment  of 
saddles  and  loads,  we  started  for  the  Cordilleras,  two 
Chilians  who  did  not  know  a  word  of  English,  one 
American,  whose  Spanish  was  rudimentary,  and  nine 
mules,  who  understood  the  music  of  the  tinkling  bell 
fastened  to  the  leader's  neck. 

There  are  two  Andean  passes  by  which  Chili  may  be 
reached  from  Mendoza.  One  is  the  Portillo  leading 
toward  Santiago,  between  the  lofty  summits  of  Tupun- 
gato  and  Maypu.  The  other  is  the  Uspallata  which 
follows  the  river  Mendoza  to  its  sources  in  the  heart  of 
the  Andes,  and  the  Aconcagua  and  other  mountain  tor- 
rents from  the  central  summit  to  the  Colorado  Valley 
and  the  high  levels  of  Santa  Rosa.  The  first  pass  is  the 
shorter  and  more  precipitous,  receiving  its  name  from 
an  overhanging  shelf  of  rock  at  one  of  the  entrances 
which  resembles  a  doorway.  It  is  13,780  feet  at  the 
highest,  and  is  very  dangerous  in  winter.  The  Uspal- 
lata is  the  main  highway  between  the  Argentine  and 
Chili.  Its  extreme  height  is  12,780  feet  above  the  sea; 
it  lies  near  Aconcagua,  the  loftiest  summit  of  the  Cor- 
dillera from  Panama  to  the  Straits ;  and  it  involves  a 
journey  of  225  miles  from  Mendoza  to  Santa  Rosa, 
better  known  as  Los  Andes.  Mr.  Darwin,  in  his  cele- 
brated excursion  to  the  Cordilleras,  entered  the  Argen- 
tine by  the  Portillo  and  returned  to  Chili  by  the 
Uspallata,  his  record  of  observations  on  the  physical 
features  of  the  country  remaining  after  fifty  years  the 
only  trustworthy  work  of   reference  on  that  section  of 


128  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

the  mountains.  The  Andean  system  there,  as  further 
north  in  Peru,  comprises  three  distinct  chains,  with  an 
average  breadth  of  250  miles  for  the  entire  mountain 
belt.  The  easternmost  Cordillera  is  known  as  the 
Paramillos.  The  central  Cordillera  is  the  highest  con- 
tinuous section  of  the  Andean  wall,  there  being  only 
two  gaps  from  Aconcagua  to  Maypu,  a  distance  of 
nearly  100  miles,  where  the  crests  fall  below  18,000  or 
19,000  feet.  Two  of  the  summits,  Aconcagua  and 
Tupungato,  exceed  22,000  feet  in  height. 

The  Uspallata  was  the  gorge  for  which  we  were  head- 
ing; but  there  were  dull  levels  to  be  traversed  before 
the  gates  of  the  Paramillos  could  be  passed.  For  thirty 
miles  after  Mendoza,  with  its  irrigated  meadows,  its 
long  files  of  poplars,  and  its  vineyards  and  farms  had 
been  left  behind,  the  road  led  north  through  an  arid 
region,  on  a  line  parallel  with  the  mountains.  The 
heat  was  intense;  a  cloud  of  suffocating  dust  was  raised 
by  the  mules'  hoofs;  and  every  mile  of  progress  was 
laborious.  There  were  neither  posadas  nor  houses 
along  this  barren  stretch,  and  breakfast  at  noon  had  to 
be  supplied  from  the  saddle-bags  and  gulped  down 
under  a  blazing  sun.  The  outlying  spurs  of  the  Para- 
millos seemed  very  near,  but  we  were  hours  in  passing 
them.  It  was  two  o'clock  before  we  could  turn  west- 
ward from  the  arid  plain  and  enter  the  defile  leading  to 
the  Cordillera.  Then  began  a  toilsome  ascent,  gradual 
at  the  outset,  but  precipitous  in  the  course  of  two 
hours.  For  fifteen  miles  from  the  entrance  of  the  defile 
I  kept  my  seat  in  the  saddle,  exhausted  from  the  fatigue 
of  a  first  day's  tramp  of  forty-five  miles,  begun  without 
coffee  and  continued  on  a  cold  breakfast.  At  last, 
toward  five   o'clock,  my  head   began  to   swim,  and  I 


THE  HEART  OF  THE  ANDES  129 

found  myself  falling,  faint  and  senseless,  from  the  back 
of  the  mule.  It  was  an  attack  of  sorroche,  or  mountain 
sickness. 

This  was  a  test  of  the  loyalty  of  the  Chilian  guides, 
whom  I  had  suspected  early  in  the  morning  of  harbor- 
ing sinister  designs  against  an  unprotected  traveller. 
One  of  them  plunged  into  the  woods  to  get  water  from 
a  spring,  while  the  other  whipped  out  the  brandy  flask 
and  restored  me  to  consciousness.  Telling  me  that  we 
were  near  a  post-house,  they  led  my  mule  and  speedily 
helped  me  to  dismount.  It  was  one  of  the  wretched 
hovels  which  are  called  mountain  hotels,  but  I  heard 
some  sweet  music  in  the  doorway.  Two  travellers, 
who  had  arrived  a  few  moments  betore  from  the  direc- 
tion of  Chili,  were  chatting  together  in  English,  one 
of  them  with  an  unmistakable  American  accent.  I 
briefly  explained  the  situation  and  they  at  once  ob- 
tained a  bed  for  me  indoors  and  ordered  coffee  and  soup. 
They  advised  me  to  remain  there  all  night  unless  I 
felt  strong  enough  to  go  nine  miles  further,  where  there 
was  a  better  hotel.  They  resumed  their  journey  when 
they  had  done  what  they  could  to  make  me  comfortable, 
leaving  me  at  leisure  to  contemplate  the  crowning 
achievement  of  posada  cuisine.  It  was  an  anomalous 
chicken  fricassee,  served  as  a  soup  in  a  very  large  bowl, 
and  lavishly  garnished  with  potatoes,  onions,  rice,  and 
herbs.  The  guide  stood  by  watching  me  eagerly  while 
I  ate  as  much  of  it  as  I  could.  At  first  I  fancied  this 
was  sympathetic  solicitude  for  an  exhausted  traveller's 
health;  but  I  was  speedily  undeceived.  No  sooner  had 
I  dropped  the  spoon  than  he  seated  himself  before  the 
bowl  and  with  a  patronizing  air  dined  at  my  expense. 
I  was  too  weary  to  resent  his  impudence,  but  retired  to 


130  TROPICAL   AlVIERICA 

the  only  guest-room  of  the  posada, —  a  rough  shed  with 
a  small  window  and  a  door  which  could  neither  be 
locked  nor  barred, —  and  slept  the  sleep  of  utter  exhaus- 
tion. At  dawn  I  was  aroused  by  the  guide,  whose  nine 
mules  were  already  sa.ddled  and  packed  for  the  day's 
march.  Warned  by  the  previous  day's  experience,  I 
insisted  upon  having  coffee  served  before  we  started, 
and  upon  making  arrangements  for  a  breakfast  at  the 
next  posada,  which  we  reached  at  ten  o'clock.  Here 
an  excellent  soup,  with  meat,  bread,  and  coffee,  invigo- 
rated me  for  the  hard  riding  of  the  day, —  over  forty 
miles  of  mountain  climbing  and  valley  cantering. 

From  the  defile  of  Villa  Vicencio,  entered  the  previ- 
ous afternoon,  had  begun  the  ascent  of  the  Paramillos, 
and  about  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  we  were  at  the 
summit,  9000  feet  above  sea  level  and  6500  feet  above 
Mendoza.  The  scenery  had  increased  in  grandeur  every 
hour  after  daybreak,  and  now  two  magnificent  specta- 
cles were  to  be  enjoyed.  The  first  was  a  broad  view 
of  the  Cu3^o  Valley  southward  and  eastward  with  Men- 
doza, its  shaded  streets,  its  plazas,  and  its  suburban 
farms  and  vineyards  directly  below  us,  and  so  near, 
that,  with  a  glass,  streets  and  houses  could  be  identi- 
fied. The  second  was  an  inspiring  glimpse  of  the 
main  Andean  chain  now  suddenly  towering  thousands 
of  feet  above  us  in  the  west.  Tupungato  in  solemn 
majesty  looked  down  upon  us  from  the  clouds.  Then, 
with  a  sharp  turn  in  the  bridle-path,  a  hundred  snow- 
clads  were  revealed  at  once.  It  was  a  spectacle  that 
fired  my  blood.  There  was  no  companion  in  sympa- 
thetic touch  with  my  enthusiasm;  but  the  Chilian 
guide  at  least  had  ears  to  hear  compliments  showered 
upon  his  native  mountains.     Leaping  from  the  mule  I 


THE   HEART   OF   THE   ANDES  131 

shouted,  "Magnifico!  Magnifico!"  and  then,  from  the 
sense  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  Spanish  tongue  for 
expressing  genuine  Yankee  feeling,  I  added,  "Hail 
Columbia!  Glory,  Hallelujah!"  A  flush  of  patriotic 
pride  illumined  the  Chilian's  face  as  he  rep)eated, 
"Magnifico!"  Then  he  produced  a  bottle  of  wine 
from  the  saddle-bags  and  we  drank  together  to  the 
health  of  the  Andean  Kings,  with  their  snowy  ermine 
falling  from  their  stately  shoulders. 

Nature  had  worked  there  on  a  stupendous  scale. 
This  miglity  wall  of  continuous  snow  peaks  rose 
abruptly  from  the  valley  at  the  base  of  the  Paramillos 
15,000  feet  to  and  beyond  the  snow  line.  As  seen  from 
the  crests  of  the  eastern  range,  the  precipitous  moun- 
tain flanks  seemed  to  have  been  thrown  up  almost  ver- 
tically, and  to  have  been  strewn  with  the  wreckage  of 
ancient  glaciers.  It  was  late  in  the  summer  and  the 
snow-drifts  in  which  the  mountain  sides  were  em- 
bedded a  few  months  before  had  shrunk  and  wasted  in 
feeding  swollen  lakes  and  roaring  torrents;  but  those 
majestic  summits  with  their  sub-Arctic  climate  never 
could  be  bare.  Wliere  there  were  sharp  peaks,  with 
polished  sides  like  the  flanks  of  Aconcagua,  the  snow 
could  slide  down  and  find  lodgement  in  cavernous 
ravines;  but  the  snow-beds  were  always  there.  The 
crests  of  the  Paramillos  were  swept  by  cold  winds,  and 
the  ground  and  stunted  bushes  were  covered  with  snow. 
There  could  be  no  halt  in  so  desolate  a  spot,  although 
the  vista  of  the  wall  of  snow-clads  was  incomparably 
glorious,  and  could  not  again  be  seen  to  equal  advan- 
tage. The  tinkle  of  the  mule-leader's  bell  kept  the 
cavalcade  in  motion  without  reference  to  scenic  won- 
ders.    From  the  crest  we  descended  hour  after  hour  to 


132  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

the  gorge  of  Uspallata,  where  at  sunset  the  best  hotel 
known  in  the  mountains  was  reached.  There  all  sense 
of  loneliness  was  removed  by  the  arrival  of  parties  of 
travellers  from  Chili,  and  the  day  closed  with  a  com- 
fortable dinner  and  good  cheer.  In  the  morning  came 
a  magnificent  sight  —  sunrise  in  the  Uspallata  Valley. 
The  Paramillos  in  the  east  flank  the  Andes  north  and 
south.  The  sunlight,  slanting  upward  over  the  outer 
wall,  touches  the  snow  peaks  of  the  Cordillera,  and 
changes  them  from  murky  white  to  vivid  scarlet,  while 
the  ravines  and  mountain  flanks  underneath  remain 
obscured  in  shadow.  Gradually  the  spaces  below  the 
snow-drifts  catch  the  light,  and  are  transformed  from 
dusky  gray  to  warm  crimson  fringed  with  olive  verdure 
at  the  base.  The  shadoAV  line  is  now  at  the  bottom  of 
the  Andean  wall.  Slowly  it  recedes  across  the  inter- 
vening valley,  and  shrinks  and  disappears  on  the  west- 
ern side  of  the  Paramillos.  The  Uspallata  is  a  splendid 
blaze  of  color.  The  raonarchs  of  the  Andes,  robed  in 
scarlet  and  crimson,  are  crowned  with  majesty  befitting 
their  high  estate. 

The  third  day's  ride,  for  which  I  again  took  precau- 
tions to  arm  myself  by  a  stout  breakfast,  was  from  Us- 
pallata to  Punta  de  las  Vacas,  a  distance  of  forty  miles 
toward  the  heart  of  the  Andes.  The  left  bank  of  the 
Mendoza  River  was  followed  closely,  the  road  leading 
over  rock  and  gravel  the  greater  part  of  the  way.  The 
mountains  were  a  wall  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the 
left.  It  was  a  long  winding  gorge,  through  which  the 
spring  freshets  had  cut  their  way,  tunnelling  through 
gigantic  masses  of  rock  and  undermining  the  founda- 
tions of  the  mountains.  The  road  was  a  bridle-path, 
curving  around  boulders,   leaving  its    serpentine  trail 


THE   HEART   OF   THE   ANDES  133 

now  on  the  river  bottom  and  again  high  on  the  moun- 
tain side,  and  traversing  inclines  so  precipitous  that 
the  traveller  hardly  dared  to  bend  over  in  the  saddle 
lest  the  mule  should  lose  its  footing  in  the  slippery 
laderas.  Water  courses  which  had  been  glistening  as 
silvery  cascades  in  mountain  chasms  were  forded  as 
roaring  torrents  plunging  to  their  death  in  the  great 
gorge  of  the  Mendoza.  Two  bridges  were  passed,  one 
an  arch  of  cement  and  timber  over  a  dangerous  stream, 
and  the  other  a  more  substantial  but  less  picturesque 
structure,  which  was  built  b}''  one  of  the  governors  of 
Mendoza.  The  valley  was  constantly  changing  its 
direction,  since  its  main  lines  had  been  caused  by  ero- 
sion. All  the  processes  of  recurring  seasons  and  natu- 
ral transformations  were  revealed  on  mountain  side  and 
in  river  bottom.  It  was  plain  that  this  remarkable 
valley  was  not  a  structural  formation  produced  in  the 
original  upheaval  of  the  mountain  masses.  It  had 
been  hollowed  out  by  the  alternate  rush  of  the  spring 
torrents  and  the  subsidence  of  swollen  streams.  High 
up  where  the  stupendous  mountain  crowns  were  lost 
among  fleecy  clouds  one  could  perceive  where  the  snow- 
drifts began  to  trickle,  where  the  converging  streams 
were  formed  year  after  year,  and  where  the  torrents 
were  emptied  into  the  river.  The  water  was  at  its 
lowest  ebb;  but  the  medium  and  high  levels  were  to  be 
traced  as  distinctly,  mile  after  mile,  as  if  they  had  been 
scientifically  surveyed  and  marked  off  by  a  measuring- 
line.  The  river  bed  was  almost  empty;  but  the  lines  of 
sudden  expansion  and  gradual  shrinkage  were  unerr- 
ingly revealed.  The  floods  had  clapped  their  hands 
season  after  season,  and  the  chasm  between  the  moun- 
tain slopes    had  been  worn    away  in  a  sinuous  course 


134  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

and  gradually  deepened.  The  Uspallata  had  its  tale 
of  fire  as  well  as  of  water  graven  on  its  bottom  lands 
and  towering  cliffs.  For  every  glacial  moraine  of 
stranded  boulders  there  were  areas  of  volcanic  dis- 
turbance. 

The  Uspallata  is  a  valley  of  enchanting  surprises 
and  sublime  spectacles ;  but  after  ten  hours  in  the  saddle 
the  most  wonderful  scenic  panorama  wearies  the  eyes 
and  ceases  to  excite  human  interest.  The  wind,  in- 
creasing to  a  gale  in  the  defiles  converging  at  Punta  de 
las  Vacas,  chills  and  benumbs  the  exhausted  traveller, 
who  from  sheer  weariness  is  almost  willing  to  exchange 
all  his  earthly  possessions  for  dinner  and  bed.  The 
attitude  of  suspicion  with  which  at  the  outset  I  had 
regarded  the  mendacious  guide  had  been  modified  by 
three  days  of  good  behavior  on  his  part  and  security  on 
my  own;  but  the  grim  thought  occurred  to  me  during 
the  last  hours  of  this  fatiguing  day's  ride,  that  if  he  still 
entertained  the  malevolent  design  of  murdering  and 
plundering  me  in  the  mountains,  it  would  be  pleasant 
to  be  despatched  at  once,  and  to  be  spared  the  neces- 
sity of  going  another  mile,  when  I  had  ceased  to  retain 
sufficient  energy  even  to  kick  a  mule  with  a  spur. 
But  the  most  wearisome  journey  comes  to  an  end,  and 
Punta  de  las  Vacas,  most  picturesque  of  mountain  inns 
in  photographs,  and  the  dirtiest  and  most  dilapidated  in 
reality,  received  the  men  and  mules  of  our  party  at 
sunset.  I  dined  on  guanaco  meat  with  a  group  of 
coarse  but  not  unkindly  mountaineers,  and  crawled 
into  the  main  guest-room  of  the  rookery  as  soon  as  the 
repast  was  finished.  In  the  middle  of  the  night  I  was 
suddenly  awakened  by  a  rustling  noise,  and  instantly 
I  felt  a  heavy  touch  upon  the  bed.     Convinced  that 


THE  HEART  OF  THE  ANDES  135 

the  mountain  marauders  had  crept  into  the  room  and 
were  robbing  me,  I  sprang  from  the  bed  and  prepared 
to  defend  myself.  No  attack  was  made,  but  the  rust- 
ling noise  was  repeated  under  the  bed.  A  match  and 
a  candle  between  them  revealed  the  intruders.  Two 
large  dogs  were  under  the  bed  and  another  was  on  the 
blanket.  The  innkeeper,  taking  compassion  upon  my 
loneliness,  must  have  opened  the  door  early  in  the  even- 
ing, and  let  in  these  great  shaggy  creatures  to  protect 
me  during  the  night  watches,  and,  incidentally,  to 
frighten  me  out  of  my  wits. 

For  the  fourth  day's  ride  I  had  an  early  start. 
The  guide  benignantly  shared  his  coffee  with  me  and 
promised  me  a  wholesome  breakfast  at  the  foot  of  the 
Cumbre, —  a  pledge  subsequently  fulfilled,  although 
hard  riding  was  required  for  overtaking  the  mule  train. 
Glorious  mountain  scenery  was  before  us;  the  rock- 
bound  monastery  of  the  Penitentes,  with  its  procession 
of  pilgrim  boulders;  the  gigantic  convolutions  of  the 
Tolorzia  Valley ;  the  abysses  of  the  Cuevas ;  the  deso- 
late Portillo  lake;  the  Soldiers'  Leap,  with  its  zigzags 
of  mule-trail;  and  the  picturesque  junction  of  the 
Blanco  and  Juncal.  Punta  de  las  Vacas  was  on  a 
level  with  the  crest  of  the  Paramillos,  whence  on  the 
second  day  we  had  gazed  with  awe  and  delight  upon 
the  glittering  wall  of  Andean  peaks.  At  the  Incas 
bridge,  a  wonderful  natural  formation,  where  there 
were  hot  springs  in  a  rocky  chasm,  the  elevation  above 
the  sea  was  10,570  feet,  and  a  casucha,  or  hut,  at  the 
foot  of  the  Cumbre,  which  we  reached  at  noon,  was  not 
much  higher.  During  the  ride  of  twenty-five  miles  to 
this  point  we  had  gradually  been  approaching  the  di- 
viding line  of  the  continental  watershed.     The  valley 


136  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

was  a  narrow  gorge ;  the  Mendoza  River  at  daylight  a 
mountain  torrent  and  at  noon  a  foaming  brook.  We 
were  at  the  base  of  the  Cumbre,  or  central  summit, 
which  we  were  to  cross  in  order  to  descend  the  Chilian 
slope.  During  the  next  two  hours  we  ascended  this 
barrier  for  over  2000  feet,  the  path  leading  by  a  series 
of  precipitous  zigzags  from  one  slope  to  another.  As 
we  went  higher  the  snow-clad  peaks,  Juncal  and  Tu- 
pungato,  towered  above  us  once  more,  as  they  did  on 
the  second  day  at  the  Paramillos,  but  nearer,  more 
majestic,  and  more  stupendous.  After  a  few  more 
miles  of  toilsome  ascent  and  we  were  at  the  crest  of 
the  Cumbre,  12,795  feet  above  sea  level.  Those  silver 
threads  here  and  there  were  the  beginning  of  rivers 
emptying  into  the  Atlantic.  Those  tangled  skeins 
near  the  snow  beds  yonder  were  the  sources  of  the 
Aconcagua  and  rivers  flowing  into  the  Pacific.  This 
great  bowl,  shaped  like  a  crater,  torn  with  deep  rents 
and  floored  with  volcanic  rocks,  among  which  the 
hardiest  yellow  and  white  flowers  of  the  sub-Arctic 
zone  were  in  bloom,  was  a  continental  dividing  line. 
It  was  an  earthquake-shattered  region  over  which  the 
creative  mysteries  of  the  past  seemed  to  brood.  The 
gales  which  swejDt  over  it  came  from  the  Atlantic,  and 
depositing  their  last  drops  of  moisture  in  snow,  passed 
on  to  the  rainless  seaboard  of  the  Pacific,  dry,  cool,  and 
balmy.  This  was  the  heart  of  the  Andes.  It  filled 
the  mind  with  shuddering  ideas  of  desolation  and  stu- 
pendous creative  energy. 

Magnificent  as  was  the  scenery,  with  Juncal  reveal- 
ing its  ruined  crater  and  Tupungato  towering  in  solemn 
silence  10,000  feet  overhead,  we  could  not  linger  long 
in  this  desolate  spot.     There  was  a  hut  on  the  crest  for 


THE  HEART  OF  THE  ANDES  137 

the  protection  of  travellers  beset  with  snow  storms  and 
hurricanes ;  but  there  was  no  provision  for  the  mules, 
and  it  was  impossible  to  corral  them  on  the  wind- 
swept summit.  The  descent  from  tiie  Cumbre  was 
rapidly  made.  At  Calaveras  there  was  another  hut, 
and  further  on  another.  Then  came  the  descent  of  the 
Caracoles,  one  of  the  boldest  and  most  picturesque  sec- 
tions of  the  Uspallata  circuit.  The  springs  of  the 
Aconcagua  could  be  traced  to  snow-drifts  melting  on 
the  mountain  sides.  It  gave  me  a  strange  sensation  to 
see  rivers  which  were  to  be  sources  of  life,  systematic 
irrigation,  and  vegetable  growth,  actually  created  under 
my  eyes  in  the  ooze  of  the  Andean  snow  beds,  and  grad- 
ually deepening  into  brooks  and  widening  into  torrents. 
At  Tambillos  we  were  at  a  level  of  about  11,000  feet. 
Thence  we  passed  the  Incas  Lake,  and,  after  a  series  of 
precipitous  descents,  reached  a  tranquil  river  course  and 
a  post-house.  So  precipitous  were  the  slopes  of  the 
Cordillera  on  the  Chilian  side  that  by  nightfall  we  were 
5000  feet  below  the  summit  and  7340  feet  above  the 
sea. 

The  conduct  of  the  guide  had  been  so  irreproachable 
for  four  days,  and  the  road  had  been  frequented  by  so 
many  mule  droves  and  groups  of  travellers,  that  all 
sense  of  danger  and  loneliness  had  been  dispelled.  Our 
team  of  nine  mules  had  frequently  been  increased  to 
twenty  or  thirty,  and  our  group  of  two  guides  and  one 
passenger  to  a  company  of  a  dozen  men.  The  travel- 
lers were  Chilian  mountaineers,  who  fraternized  with 
the  guides,  but  their  salutations  to  me  were  courteous, 
and  their  manners  unobtrusive.  It  was  at  Ojos  del 
Agua,  during  the  fourth  evening,  when  my  confidence 
in  the  guide,  whom  I  had  convicted  of  shameless  men- 


138  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

dacity  on  the  first  day,  had  been  completely  restored, 
that  he  revealed  his  true  character  and  justified  my 
earliest  apprehensions.  He  came  to  me  with  face 
flushed  with  drink,  and  demanded  an  increase  in  his 
hire.  I  deliberately  refused  to  understand  him,  making 
good  use  of  my  unfamiliarity  with  Spanish.  The  next 
morning  he  returned  to  the  assault  and  was  met  in  the 
same  way.  We  mounted  for  the  fifth  day's  ride  to  the 
Colorado  and  Santa  Rosa.  The  scenery  was  of  en- 
chanting loveliness,  the  rivers  foaming  in  rapids  and 
falling  in  cascades  the  greater  part  of  the  way,  and  the 
mountain  gorge  gradually  opening  into  a  broad  and 
beautiful  valley.  The  guide  was  not  disposed  to  allow 
me  to  enjoy  this  wonderful  scenery  in  peace.  Re- 
peatedly he  joined  me,  and  sought  to  convince  me  that 
I  must  pay  him  more  money  in  order  to  be  conducted 
all  the  way  to  Santa  Rosa.  He  was  reinforced  by  three 
Chilians,  who  surrounded  me  and  made  unmistakable 
gestures  in  the  direction  of  my  pocket ;  but  I  declined 
to  comprehend  their  meaning.  This  comedy  was 
enacted  at  two  o'clock,  when  we  reached  Guardia,  the 
frontier  custom-house.  The  guide  was  royally  drunk, 
his  successive  failures  to  make  his  passenger  understand 
and  comply  with  his  exactions  having  driven  him  in 
despondent  mood  into  every  wayside  drinking  place. 

I  was  weary  of  this  by-play.  Concluding  from  the 
aspect  of  the  country  that  we  could  not  be  far  from 
Santa  Rosa,  and  that  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  obtain 
a  coach,  I  called  the  guide  to  me,  paid  him  the  original 
contract  price,  and  discharged  him.  He  was  dazed  for 
a  moment,  and  then  quickly  rallied,  assuring  me  that  I 
could  not  get  a  coach,  and  that  as  it  would  be  impossi- 
ble to  reach  Santa  Rosa  that  day,  I  must  go  on  with 


THE  HEART  OF  THE  ANDES  139 

him.  This  I  refused  to  do,  and  ordered  him  to  unload 
my  baggage  mule.  Instead  of  complying  with  this 
demand,  he  whipped  up  the  mule  and  disappeared  down 
the  road.  The  glimpse  of  my  baggage  vanishing  in 
the  turn  of  the  road  made  me  disconsolate.  I  had  no 
alternative.  I  had  to  follow  my  baggage  or  run  the 
risk  of  losing  it  altogether.  I  mounted  my  mule,  and 
went  on  with  the  train  for  an  hour,  apprehending  that 
the  drunken  guide  would  lodge  me  for  the  night  in 
some  wretched  posada,  where  I  might  be  exposed  to 
serious  danger.  In  this  emergency  two  Chilian  gentle- 
men appeared  opportunely  upon  the  scene,  driving  in  a 
coach  with  three  horses  to  Santa  Rosa.  They  had 
heard  that  an  American  traveller  was  having  trouble 
with  a  drunken  guide,  and  had  come  to  the  rescue. 
In  five  minutes  my  baggage  was  on  the  coach,  and  we 
were  bowling  merrily  along  the  road  toward  Santa 
Rosa.  At  six  o'clock  we  were  dining  in  an  excellent 
hotel  in  the  plaza  of  the  town,  the  long  journey  from 
Mendoza  having  ended. 

Los  Andes  was  a  restful  and  delightful  spot  to  one 
who  had  been  making  intimate  acquaintance  with  a 
refractory  mule  in  the  mountains.  It  had  one  of  the 
old-fashioned  Spanish  hotels,  with  sleeping  rooms, 
dining-room,  and  baths  on  the  ground  floor,  and  several 
open  courts  in  the  interior,  planted  with  parterres  of 
flowers  and  kept  cool  and  spotlessly  neat.  Hoav  charm- 
ing was  the  retirement  of  those  fragrant  patios  after 
the  cattle-sheds  of  the  mountains !  How  wholesome 
and  refreshing  were  the  dinners  after  those  inscrutable 
mysteries,  the  chicken  sopas  of  the  post-houses !  How 
clean  and  alluring  was  the  bed-linen  after  the  dog-mats 
of  Punta  de  las  Vacas  1     In  peace  and  comfort  I  could 


140  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

revel  there  in  thoughts  of  miseries  escaped  at  Mendoza, 
of  mercenary  guides  baffled  in  their  attempted  extor- 
tions, and  of  exhilarating  experiences  and  sublime 
spectacles  stored  in  the  memory  to  remain  a  delight  in 
coming  years.  The  town  was  the  usual  Spanish  chess- 
board, with  the  four  central  squares  reserved  for  the 
plaza,  the  brass  band,  the  church,  and  the  hotels. 
There  was  little  to  be  seen  in  the  lanes  crossing  one 
another  at  right  angles ;  but  how  glorious  was  the  vista 
of  the  Andes  and  the  maritime  range !  The  drives  and 
walks  about  this  beautiful  town  were  sources  of  unfail- 
ing delight.  Aconcagua,  with  its  triple  peaks  piercing 
the  clouds,  was  seen  once  more,  tranquil  and  restful  in 
its  shapely  beauty,  and  no  longer  awe-inspiring  in  its 
stupendous  power  and  sublime  majesty.  The  ravines 
of  the  Colorado  and  the  approaches  to  the  Guardia, 
the  starting-point  for  the  journey  eastward,  were  easily 
recognized.  Mountains  were  encamped  on  every  side 
about  this  Andean  outpost,  exchanging  their  shadow 
signals  and  countersigns  during  the  watches  of  the  night 
and  marshalling  their  battalions  for  inspection  at  dawn. 
The  passage  of  the  Uspallata  is  made  most  easily 
during  January  and  February,  when  the  snow  has  dis- 
appeared from  the  lower  mountain  slopes  and  the  river 
levels  are  lowest.  From  April  to  November  snow 
storms  are  constantly  met  with,  the  bridle-paths  are 
slippery,  and  the  discomforts  and  perils  of  the  journey 
are  multiplied.  Mountaineers  and  mail-couriers  force 
the  passage  even  in  the  most  inclement  weeks  of 
winter,  travelling  on  foot  over  the  Cumbre.  The 
scenery  in  the  winter  time,  when  the  abysses  are  en- 
gulfed with  snow,  and  the  rugged  mountain  walls  are 
incased  in  ice,  must  be  of  unrivalled  grandeur,  but  a 


THE  HEAKT  OF  THE  ANDES  141 

prudent  traveller  will  be  content  to  make  the  journey 
in  midsummer.  Even  when  the  road  is  dry  there  is 
constant  danger,  since  a  mule  with  characteristic  per- 
versity persists  in  travelling  along  the  outer  edge  of  the 
slope  on  the  edges  of  the  precipices,  and  it  is  unsafe, 
as  well  as  useless,  to  attempt  to  make  him  swerve  from 
his  self-regulated  course.  When  the  road  is  coated 
over  with  ice  one  must  be  a  hardy  mountaineer  in 
order  to  rise  superior  to  the  perils  of  precipitous  chasms 
and  deeply  sunken  river  bottoms.  The  sense  of  loneli- 
ness increases,  moreover,  when  few  travellers  are  on  the 
highway,  and  one  is  confronted  with  the  solemn  still- 
ness and  gloomy  grandeur  of  the  Andes.  In  midsum- 
mer the  passing  of  mule  trains  imparts  animation  and 
variety  to  the  journey.  The  picturesque  ponchos,  and 
the  bright  fantastic  patterns  of  the  neck-gear  worn  by 
the  guides  and  mountaineers,  add  a  welcome  touch  of 
color  to  the  barren  edges  of  bridle-paths.  When  fellow- 
travellers  are  met,  it  is  a  sudden  refreshing  contact  of 
human  companionship.  Smiles  and  "buenos  dias"  are 
exchanged,  and  the  file  of  the  passing  cavalcade  is 
watched  as  it  disappears  in  the  zigzag  of  the  road. 
Human  society  is  the  more  welcome  from  the  absence 
of  animal  life  in  the  mountains.  The  guide-books 
represent  condors  as  perched  on  the  heights  of  the  most 
dangerous  passes  where  a  traveller  will  be  pitched  head- 
long a  thousand  feet  into  abysses  if  the  mule  goes 
wrong.  I  did  not  see  these  grim  sentinels.  I  heard 
the  twitter  of  only  one  bird  in  the  course  of  the  five 
days'  ride.  That  was  a  wee  thing,  only  as  large  as  a 
swallow. 

Unfortunate  as  was  my  own  choice  of  a  guide,  I  can 
readily  believe  that  most  of  the  mountaineers  are  honest 


142  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

and  respectful  in  their  dealings  with  strangers.  All 
danger  of  suffering  from  imposition  and  rapacity  is 
removed  when  one  is  familiar  with  Spanish  or  has  a 
travelling  companion.  The  road  is  so  direct  that  the 
services  of  a  guide  are  unnecessary.  The  best  way  to 
cross  the  Andes  is  to  send  one's  baggage  on  ahead  with 
a  mule  train,  and  then  to  buy  a  mule  and  to  proceed 
without  guides,  but  with  fellow-travellers.  In  this 
way  halts  can  be  made  at  the  best  posadas,  and  the 
journey  lengthened  from  five  to  seven  days,  with  less 
fatigue  and  greater  enjoyment  of  the  scenery.  When 
the  opposite  mountain  slope  is  reached  the  mule  can  be 
sold  at  a  sacrifice  which  will  not  exceed  the  hire  of  a 
guide.  A  ride  through  the  magnificent  gorge  of  Uspal- 
lata  and  over  the  Cumbre  to  the  heart  of  the  Andes  is 
an  experience  never  to  be  forgotten.  It  offers  glimpses 
of  unrivalled  mountain  scenery.  It  brings  one  close  to 
the  secret  laboratories  of  Nature,  where  earth-rending 
forces  have  been  at  work,  with  j)rimal  sources  of  power, 
creative  or  destructive,  buried  in  appalling  mystery. 


VIII 
CHILI   AND   ITS   CIVIL   WAR 

SIGNS    OF    PATRIOTISM  AXD   THRIFT  —  A   HOMOGENEOUS   POP- 
ULATION —  SANTIAGO    AND    VALPARAISO  —  DEVELOPMENT 

OF     EUROPEAN     TRADE THE     CONSTITUTIONAL    CONFLICT 

THE    CIVIL    WAR DOWNFALL    OF    BALMACEDA 

One  of  the  earliest  indications  of  the  passage  of  the 
mountain  frontier  was  the  Chilian  flag  floating  from  a 
high  staff  where  it  could  be  seen  miles  away  from  the 
valleys  below.  As  I  continued  the  descent  of  the 
Andean  slopes,  I  noticed  the  same  flag  many  times  above 
signal  stations  and  surveyors'  landmarks.  The  display 
of  the  national  colors,  at  the  earliest  practicable  points 
on  the  road  from  the  Argentine,  was  characteristic  of 
the  patriotism  of  the  Chilian  people.  Of  all  the  nations 
in  South  America  it  has  the  deepest  affection  and  the 
noblest  enthusiasm  for  its  flag.  The  Chilians  may 
have  their  faults,  but  they  have  the  redeeming  virtue 
of  intense  love  of  country.  They  are  proud  not  only  of 
the  material  progress  of  the  nation,  but  also  of  its  mari- 
time supremacy,  and  of  the  achievements  of  the  fighting 
services  on  land  and  sea.  The  victorious  war  with 
Peru  is  an  heroic  period,  which  ministers  alike  to  an 
exalted  loyalty  and  to  an  overweening  vanity.  Mon- 
uments to  admirals  and  generals  are  seen  in  the  plazas 
and  alamedas  of  the  cities.  There  is  hardly  a  village 
where   prints   and  photographs   of   the  naval   fight   at 

143 


144  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

Iquique  cannot  be  found  in  the  shop  windows.  The 
facility  with  which  two  powerful  States  were  over- 
powered, and  deprived  of  large  territories,  fostered  an 
elastic  confidence  in  the  superiority  of  the  nation  as  a 
Spanish- American  fighting  power,  and  a  feeling  of  con- 
tempt for  the  military  claims  of  rivals.  Self-esteem 
was  developed  to  a  degree  almost  vainglorious.  It 
was  a  pride  doomed  to  be  humiliated  during  the  Civil 
War;  but  even  in  that  disastrous  struggle  there  was, 
withal,  sterling  patriotism  of  a  true  and  honest  ring. 

The  population  of  Chili  is  more  homogeneous  than 
that  of  the  Argentine.  The  number  of  foreigners  of 
unmixed  blood  is  very  small  in  comparison  with  the 
native  Chilian  stock.  The  aboriginal  strain  runs  in 
seven-tenths  of  the  population.  I  noticed  the  contrast 
between  Italianized  Argentina  and  the  maritime  State 
in  my  first  study  of  faces  at  Los  Andes.  There  was  a 
marked  uniformity  of  facial  types.  Men  and  women 
alike  had  swarthy  complexions,  large,  deep-set,  bril- 
liant eyes,  and  hair  at  once  black,  bristling,  and  glossy. 
In  Buenos  Ayres  one  watches  a  cosmopolitan  crowd 
recruited  from  every  race  in  Europe,  and  wonders  where 
the  natives  are  and  what  they  are  like.  In  Chili  he 
sees,  in  the  main,  a  people  of  uniform  type  and  marked 
characteristics.  It  is,  undoubtedly,  the  best  of  the 
Spanish-American  races.  In  volume  the  population  is 
probably  1,000,000  less  than  that  of  the  Argentine,  a 
safe  estimate  being  3,000,000  against  4,000,000. 

From  Los  Andes  I  made  the  journey  in  an  English 
compartment  car  to  Santiago,  catching  from  the  win- 
dows glimpses  of  mountain  scenery  and  green  mead- 
ows, broad  areas  of  successful  cultivation,  and  tidy 
homesteads  with   capacious  barns.     In   Central   Chili 


CHILI   AND   ITS   CIVIL   WAR  145 

irrigation  is  essential  to  prosperous  farming.  Rains 
are  confined  mainly  to  three  months  of  the  twelve,  and 
without  artificial  supplies  of  water  from  the  mountain 
streams  agricultural  operations  are  impracticable.  The 
areas  of  cultivation  are  the  valleys  where  trenches  can 
be  multiplied,  and  between  these  verdant  belts  are  arid 
wastes  which  in  midsummer  are  burned  bare.  It  is 
an  unerring  proof  of  the  indomitable  energy  of  the 
people  that  agriculture  is  carried  on  at  all  in  Central 
Chili  under  conditions  so  unpropitious. 

Like  Rio  de  Janeiro  the  Chilian  capital  needs  to  be 
an  imposing  city  in  order  to  be  worthy  of  its  scenic 
setting.  It  is  in  the  centre  of  a  lovely  valley,  encom- 
passed by  shapely  mountains  of  magnificent  propor- 
tions. The  same  lofty  peaks,  which  from  the  Cumbre 
overpower  a  sympathetic  spectator  with  their  gloomy 
grandeur,  their  ice-bound  abysses,  and  their  vistas  of 
rock-riven  desolation,  from  Santiago  are  restful  sum- 
mits rising  one  upon  another  and  irradiated  with  rich 
mists  of  sunlight.  The  barren  edges  flung  against  the 
sky,  where  shattered  masses  of  rock  hang  in  menacing 
instability,  are  transformed  into  peaceful  crests,  streaked 
with  glittering  snow.  Chasms  which  close  to  the  eye 
reveal  the  havoc  wrought  by  earth-rending  forces  are 
delicately  tinted  lines  of  shadow  in  the  distant  vista  of 
the  Andes.  With  so  grand  and  inspiring  a  pageant 
always  to  be  seen  from  the  Alameda  and  St.  Lucia, 
Santiago  has  not  neglected  its  opportunities.  It  is  a 
handsome  and  impressive  city,  with  fine  parks,  strik- 
ing architectural  effects  in  its  public  buildings  and 
churches,  and  orderly,  well-kept  lines  of  streets,  many 
of  which  have  superior  Belgian  pavements  and  electric 
lights.     The  only  source  of  disfigurement  is  the  river 


146  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

Mapocho  flowing  through  the  town,  which  in  the  dry 
season  labors  under  the  disadvantage  of  not  having  any 
water  in  it;  but  this  is  shielded  from  view  by  walls 
and  embankments  and  rendered  as  sightly  as  possible. 
The  population  of  Santiago  ranges  between  225,000  and 
250,000. 

The  Alameda  is  a  broad  avenue  over  two  miles  long, 
with  double  lines  of  trees,  and  a  series  of  monuments 
and  statues  commemorative  of  the  public  services  and 
heroic  deeds  of  various  patriots.  Only  one  thing  is 
needed  in  order  to  make  it  an  impressive  and  beautiful 
street.  That  is  a  greensward  in  place  of  the  unsightly 
promenade  under  the  trees.  Handsome  turf  is  what 
one  never  sees  in  South  America,  and  in  Santiago  there 
is  not  enough  rain  to  keep  a  lawn  fresh  or  grass  from 
being  burned  and  killed  in  midsummer.  A  trench  of 
running  water  running  along  the  central  common  is  a 
practical  demonstration  of  the  facility  of  irrigation,  and 
some  day  a  municipal  reformer  may  supply  what  is  lack- 
ing in  this  ambitious  avenue  of  monuments.  St.  Lucia 
was  a  neglected  and  barren  rock  in  the  heart  of  the 
city,  and  was  occupied  and  frequented  only  by  the 
lowest  classes,  when  a  public-spirited  citizen,  Vicuna 
Mac  Kenna,  undertook  to  convert  it  into  the  best 
pleasure  ground  of  the  capital.  It  is  now  approached 
by  winding  carriage  roads,  stone  staircases,  and  shaded 
walks,  and  is  ornamented  with  terraces,  banks  of  flowers, 
artistic  balustrades,  rustic  arbors,  grottos,  a  chapel,  a 
statue,  and  a  series  of  high  lookouts  commanding  mag- 
nificent prospects  of  the  Andes,  the  maritime  range, 
and  the  capital  itself.  There  is  a  theatre  on  the 
highest  ground  in  the  city,  and  there  is  also  an  excel- 
lent restaurant  where  a  dinner  or  an  ice  can  be  ordered. 


CHILI   AND   ITS   CIVIL   WAR  147 

The  flowers  and  vines  on  this  lofty  rock  overhanging 
the  Alameda  are  kept  fresh  and  beautiful  by  constant 
watering,  and  St.  Lucia  is  the  most  picturesque  and 
artistic  feature  of  the  capital.  It  is  a  miniature  Cor- 
covado  accessible  from  the  main  streets. 

The  main  plaza  has  the  post-office,  municipal  build- 
ings, and  arcades  of  stucco  on  two  sides,  the  ambitious 
facade  of  the  Grand  Hotel  on  another,  and,  finally,  the 
Cathedral  built  of  brick  and  stone,  with  a  cross  high  in 
air  to  demonstrate  a  sacred  character  which  its  general 
architectural  lines  do  not  reveal,  although  the  interior 
is  chaste  and  rich.  The  capitol  is  a  block  away,  a  mas- 
sive structure,  with  two  high  stories  and  a  flat  roof,  and 
lines  of  shapely  columns  at  the  entrance  on  each  side. 
It  is  the  handsomest  and  most  imposing  Hall  of  Dep- 
uties to  be  seen  in  South  America,  and  is  surrounded 
by  well-kept,  if  narrow,  grounds,  with  one  graceful  and 
finely  proportioned  statue  near  the  main  entrance.  The 
National  Library  is  close  by,  with  the  Palaces  of  Jus- 
tice adjoining.  The  University  of  Santiago  is  a  stately 
structure,  and  it  has  well-equipped  faculties  and  appli- 
ances for  higher  education.  Probably  no  university  in 
South  America  has  a  better  academic  reputation  or  is 
doing  a  larger  work.  The  Astronomical  Observatory 
has  lovely  surroundings  in  a  well-shaded,  semi-tropical 
garden.  The  Quinta  Normal  is  a  horticultural  garden 
and  museum  of  natural  history,  with  fine  grounds  taste- 
fully laid  out.  Santiago  abounds  in  good  architecture 
of  a  classic  type,  and  in  public  gardens  and  promenades 
of  genuine  natural  attractions.  With  excellent  hotels, 
good  theatres,  fine  drives,  and  objects  of  interest  which 
cannot  be  exhausted  in  a  fortnight  of  industrious 
sight-seeing,  it  has  everything  to  attract  and  charm  a 


148  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

traveller.  With  the  exception  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  I  have 
not  found  any  South  American  city  so  interesting  as 
Santiago. 

The  plaza  on  Sunday  morning  was  filled  with  black- 
gowned  and  hooded  women  on  their  way  to  church.  In 
Chili,  as  in  Peru,  custom  requires  women  to  go  to  Mass 
dressed  with  severe  simplicity.  There  are  no  seats  in 
the  churches,  and  nearly  all  worshippers  take  rugs  or 
silk  handkerchiefs  on  which  to  sit  and  kneel  during 
service.  Attracted  by  the  novel  sight  of  hundreds  of 
women  in  black,  I  entered  the  church  which  was  densely 
thronged.  The  black  costumes  massed  in  the  nave  and 
aisles  intensified  the  effect  of  a  lavish  display  of  altar 
lights.  An  eloquent  priest,  with  a  fine  face  and  an 
earnest,  impressive  manner  preached,  his  melodious 
voice,  with  a  solemn  note  of  warning,  filling  the  church 
like  a  trumpet. 

The  Roman  faith  is  found  at  its  best  in  Chili,  where 
a  close  approach  has  been  made  to  a  separation  of 
Church  and  State,  and  where  absolute  religious  toler- 
ance is  practised.  The  clergy  still  receive  stipends 
from  the  treasury;  but  the  appropriations  have  been 
gradually  reduced,  and  disestablishment  cannot  be  de- 
ferred many  years.  Civil  marriage  alone  is  recognized 
by  law  as  valid.  In  order  to  be  legally  married  man 
and  woman  must  appear  before  the  register.  When 
they  leave  his  presence  they  are  husband  and  wife.  If 
they  then  choose  to  have  a  religious  service  in  a  Roman 
Catholic  church,  or  in  a  Protestant  chapel,  they  can  do 
so.  The  enactment  of  the  Civil  Marriage  Law  was 
fiercely,  but  unsuccessfully,  resisted  by  the  clerical 
party.  In  like  manner  the  Burials  Act,  opening  cem- 
eteries to  Protestants  as  well  as  Roman  Catholics,  was 


CHILI   AMD   ITS   CIVIL   WAR  149 

passed  in  the  face  of  determined  opposition.  Subse- 
quently attempts  were  made  in  Santiago  and  elsewhere 
to  remove  bodies  from  what  was  considered  desecrated 
ground,  and  to  bury  them  in  churches,  but  the  authori- 
ties promptly  suppressed  this  practice.  Protestantism 
is  protected  by  law  and  has  a  clear  field.  Presbyterian 
churches  have  been  established  in  Valparaiso,  Santiago, 
and  Concepci6n,  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Trumbull  having 
been  a  pioneer  in  the  work.  The  American  Metho- 
dists, entering  the  field  at  a  more  recent  date,  have 
done  an  important  work,  opening  chapels  and  schools 
in  Iquique,  Copiap6,  and  Concepcion,  and  a  college  in 
Santiago. 

There  are  European  bazaars  in  the  streets  of  the 
Chilian  capital  where  once  there  were  Yankee  notion 
stores.  Between  1863  and  1888  the  combined  imports 
received  in  Chili  from  England,  France,  and  Germany 
increased  from  $13,164,442  to  $46,679,231.  During 
the  same  period  the  imports  from  the  United  States 
advanced  from  $1,635,598  to  $3,133,173.  In  view  of 
the  extraordinary  efforts  made  by  maritime  Europe  to 
develop  trade  with  Chili,  and  of  the  utter  indifference 
of  the  United  States  to  the  decadence  of  its  commercial 
marine,  upon  which  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  the 
export  trade  depend,  I  marvel  that  there  is  a  remnant 
so  large.  The  Chilians  are  the  most  active  commercial 
nation  in  South  America,  and  are  shaping  the  indus- 
trial fortunes  of  the  West  Coast.  Maritime  Europe 
appreciates  the  importance  of  cultivating  the  closest 
possible  relations  with  them.  The  United  States  has 
not  manifested  interest  in  the  wonderful  development 
of  Chilian  industries  and  political  power. 

Before  the  laids  of  English-Confederate  cruisers  on 


150  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

the  Yankee  merchant  fleet,  the  West  Coast  was  largely 
supplied  with  American  cottons,  hardware,  and  general 
merchandise.  The  transfer  of  that  fleet  to  the  English 
flag  during  the  Civil  War  was  followed  by  a  rapid 
decline  of  American  trade  and  influence.  There  was 
one  far-sighted  merchant, —  Chili  has  recognized  its 
obligations  for  his  public  services  by  erecting  a  statue 
to  him  in  one  of  its  plazas, —  who  discerned  the  possi- 
bility of  restoring  trade  by  the  establishment  of  a  steam- 
ship line  under  the  flag.  Mr.  Wheelwright  laid  his 
plan  before  New  York  capitalists,  and  demonstrated  the 
practicability  of  controlling  the  commerce  of  the  West 
Coast  by  a  timely  stroke  of  enterprise ;  but  this  project 
was  considered  visionary,  and  he  was  compelled  to  seek 
for  encouragement  in  England.  The  Pacific  Naviga- 
tion Company  was  founded  largely  through  his  efforts; 
and,  to-day,  it  largely  dominates  the  traffic  of  the  sea- 
board from  the  Straits  to  Panama.  A  commanding 
opportunity  for  the  extension  of  American  trade  was 
lost  through  neglect  to  supply  steam  communication. 
If  a  line  had  been  established  between  1865  and  1870 
from  New  York  to  San  Francisco,  with  Pernam- 
buco,  Bahia,  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Santos,  Montevideo, 
Buenos  Ayres,  and  the  West  Coast  ports  as  far  as 
Panama  as  the  chief  calling  stations,  there  would  have 
been,  at  least,  a  division  of  commercial  empire  in  the 
south  between  the  United  States  and  maritime  Europe. 
The  development  of  steam  communication  has  been 
rapid  since  the  first  steamers  went  out  from  Liverpool 
aided  by  an  English  subsidy.  The  Pacific  Company 
sends  out  two  steamers  a  month  to  Valparaiso,  and  has 
a  powerful  fleet  on  the  West  Coast,  plying  between  all 
ports  from  Corral  to  Panama.     It  has  as  many  as  sixty 


CHILI   AND    ITS   CIVIL    WAR  151 

steamers  in  constant  service,  including  tenders  for  col- 
lecting freight  at  the  smallest  ports.  A  second  English 
company,  known  as  the  Gulf  Line,  has  been  established 
within  a  few  years.  The  German  Kosmos  Line  has  a 
large  fleet  running  between  Hamburg,  Montevideo,  and 
Valparaiso,  dispatching  two  steamers  a  month.  It  also 
has  a  number  of  steamers  making  regular  trips  between 
Valparaiso  and  the  nitrate  ports,  as  well  as  to  Callao 
and  Panama.  There  is  a  French  line  between  Havre, 
Bordeaux,  and  Valparaiso,  and  there  are  several  minor 
coasting  lines  under  various  flags.  The  most  formida- 
ble competitor  which  the  English  Pacific  line  has  in  the 
coasting  trade  is  the  South  American  Steamship  Com- 
pany under  the  Chilian  flag.  The  Company  has  a  pow- 
erful fleet,  built  expressly  for  the  West  Coast  trade,  and 
sends  steamers  twice  a  month  from  Valparaiso  to  Pan- 
ama, besides  having  fortnightly  lines  running  to  Lota 
and  Chiloe,  in  the  south,  and  to  the  nitrate  ports  and 
Callao  in  the  north. 

The  bulk  of  Chilian  trade  is  with  those  countries 
which  have  established  regular  lines  of  steamship  com- 
munication with  Valparaiso.  England  has  increased 
its  exports  to  Chili  from  -H  090, 069  in  1863  to  |26,351,- 
141  in  1888,  and  its  imports  in  return  during  the  same 
period  from  112,313,009  to  $58,898,407.  Germany 
beginning  in  1863  with  exports  to  Chili  valued  at 
$772,515,  has  increased  them  to  $14,046,577  in  1888, 
while  its  imports  in  return  have  run  up  from  $684,496 
to  $4,751,990.  These  results  have  been  secured  by  the 
two  nations  which  have  had  the  best  steamship  facili- 
ties for  the  movement  of  freight  in  the  Pacific  and  Kos- 
mos lines.  The  French  exports  to  Chili  during  the  same 
period  have  expanded  from  $4,301,858  to  $6,181,513, 


152  TEOPICAL   AMERICA 

and  the  imports  from  -$1,649,364  to  -14,295,055. 
While  there  has  been  an  increase,  it  is  small  in  com- 
parison with  the  material  progress  made  by  Great 
Britain  and  Germany;  and,  as  a  coincidence,  it  is  to 
be  noted  that  the  French  steamship  line  is  a  feeble  one, 
and  is  not  equipped  for  serious  competition  with  Ger- 
many and  England.  One  of  the  best  evidences  of  the 
utility  of  steamship  communications  in  promoting  com- 
mercial exchanges,  is  furnished  by  the  rapid  develop- 
ment of  the  Chilian  import  and  export  trade  with  Peru 
and  Ecuador,  which  has  followed  the  sharp  competition 
for  freights  between  the  English  and  National  lines  on 
the  West  Coast.  The  bulk  of  the  wheat  surplus  which 
is  shipped  from  Talcahuano  now  goes  north  to  feed  a 
rainless  seaboard  of  2000  miles,  and  in  exchange  are 
received  from  Peru  cotton,  sugar,  wool,  and  many  other 
products. 

With  a  declining  import  and  export  trade  in  a  period 
of  unwonted  commercial  activity  on  the  West  Coast, 
American  merchants  in  Valparaiso  are  compelled  to 
admit  that  they  cannot  hope  to  compete  successfully 
with  English  and  German  rivals  under  the  present  con- 
ditions of  slow  communication,  high  freights,  breakage 
of  goods  at  Panama,  and  lack  of  exchange  on  New 
York.  Investments  of  European  capital  in  Chili, 
moreover,  have  been  very  large.  At  least  one-half  of 
the  national  debt  is  held  in  England.  To  this  must  be 
added  the  capital  invested  in  railways,  copper  and  silver 
mines,  nitrate  works,  steamship  lines,  and  commercial 
business.  Probably  the  aggregate  English  capital 
invested  in  Chili  exceeds  $125,000,000.  Germany  also 
has  large  invested  interests;  but  Americans  are  repre- 
sented only  by  three  commercial  houses  and  two  life 
insurance  companies. 


CHILI   AND   ITS   CIVIL   WAR  153 

To  one  who  has  crossed  the  continent  from  the 
Atlantic,  it  is  the  background  that  makes  Valparaiso 
alike  interesting  and  impressive.  That  background 
is  the  Pacitic,  which  from  the  windows  of  the  English 
compartment  cars  suddenly  comes  into  view  in  a  far- 
reaching  vista  of  tranquil  blue  fringed  with  yellow 
haze.  In  the  translucent  atmosphere  of  Chili  the  pow- 
ers of  vision  seem  to  be  almost  doubled.  From  the 
hillsides  of  Valparaiso  one  can  see  the  Andean  peak  of 
Aconcagua,  and  when  he  gazes  seaward  the  horizon 
line  seems  to  be  lifted  back  and  projected  leagues 
beyond  its  normal  limits.  One  can  never  look  upon  an 
ocean  for  the  first  time  without  experiencing  a  thrill  of 
pleasurable  excitement,  and  that  feeling  is  intensified 
when  he  has  crossed  a  foreign  continent  and  been  among 
the  snows  of  the  Andes.  With  contrasting  emotions 
the  old-time  Spanish  navigators  approached  Valparaiso 
from  the  sea  after  tempestuous  voyages  in  the  Straits 
and  perils  averted  off  Chiloe.  The  first  landmark  on 
that  barren,  rainless  coast  was  joyfully  hailed  by  them 
as  the  Point  of  Angels,  and  the  bold  bluffs  encircling  a 
sheltered  bay  seemed  to  them  a  veritable  Vale  of  Para- 
dise. One  could  have  a  more  intelligent  appreciation 
of  their  nomenclature,  if  he  were  convinced  that  they 
had  come  down  the  Western  Sahara,  stretching  2000 
miles  southward  from  the  Gulf  of  Guayaquil.  After 
Atacama  and  the  desolate  coasts  of  Peru  and  Northern 
Chili,  any  verdant  hillside  would  have  been  a  glimpse 
of  Eden. 

Valparaiso  is  a  bustling  city  with  a  population  of 
120,000.  It  was  original  1}'  built  on  the  steep  hillsides 
overlooking  the  harbor;  but  the  modern  town  follows 
the   winding   shore,  the    narrow  margin   having   been 


154  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

widened  and  greatly  extended  by  additional  ground 
reclaimed  from  the  sea.  A  town  with  curving  streets 
and  irregular  outlines  offers  a  refreshing  contrast  to 
the  checker-board  squares  of  the  newer  Spanish-Ameri- 
can cities.  Valparaiso  is  without  definite  plan  or  out- 
line. There  is  a  series  of  wide  ravines  opening  from 
the  crests  of  the  hills,  and  each  has  its  network  of 
rambling  streets  and  alleys,  and  its  congeries  of  low- 
pitched  roofs  and  weather-beaten  houses.  From  the 
plaza  opposite  the  custom-house  landing  and  the 
railway  station  three  or  four  business  streets  pursue 
their  devious  courses  to  the  right  and  to  the  left 
along  the  curves  of  the  bay.  The  modern  town 
is  adorned  with  monuments  and  statues  wherever  a 
plaza  or  a  cluster  of  trees  offers  an  oppoi'tunity  for 
patriotic  memorials.  The  most  tasteful,  as  well  as 
elaborate  monument,  is  that  erected  in  the  central  plaza 
in  honor  of  Arturo  Prat,  commander  of  the  Esmeralda^ 
and  the  other  heroes  of  the  sea-fight  at  Iquique.  The 
government  buildings  and  churches  are  not  impressive ; 
bat  there  are  showy  blocks  of  shops,  and  there  is  a  brisk 
movement  of  traffic  in  the  streets.  The  chief  attrac- 
tion of  Valparaiso  is  the  climate,  which  is  tempered  by 
ocean  and  aerial  currents  from  the  Antarctic.  Even  in 
midsummer,  the  mean  temperature  is  sixty-three  de- 
grees Fahrenheit  for  the  month  of  January,  with  a 
maximum  of  seventy-seven  degrees ;  and  in  midwinter 
the  minimum  temperature  is  forty-five  degrees  with 
fifty-two  degrees  as  the  average  for  July.  While  the 
winters  are  about  as  warm  as  those  of  corresponding 
latitudes  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  the  summer  heats  are 
from  eight  to  ten  degrees  lower.  In  Santiago  the 
maximum  temperature  in  summer  is  ten  degrees  higher 


CHILI   AND   ITS   CIVIL  WAR  155 

than  that  of  Valparaiso ;  yet  the  winters  are  much  more 
severe  in  the  mountain  valley  than  on  the  coast,  the 
difference  in  minimum  temperature  being  fifteen  de- 
grees. The  climate  of  Valparaiso  is  singularly  dry, 
equable,  and  invigorating. 

What  is  most  surprising  is  the  freshness  of  vegeta- 
tion in  a  town  where  rain  is  practically  confined  to 
three  months  and  averages  thirteen  and  a  half  inches 
for  the  year.  Even  in  the  middle  of  the  long  dry  season 
the  trees  in  the  parks  do  not  have  a  parched  appearance; 
and  in  Viua  del  Mar,  a  delightful  suburb  on  the  outer 
edge  of  the  bay,  where  the  wealthy  residents  of  Santi- 
ago and  other  Chilian  toAvns  swarm  during  the  heated 
period,  there  are  remarkably  brilliant  displays  of  flow- 
ers, shrubs,  and  trees,  the  country  looking  fresh  and 
verdant,  as  though  there  had  been  showers  every  week. 
It  is  a  beautiful  rolling  country,  with  orchards  and 
vineyards  and  fields  of  wheat  waving  in  the  ocean 
breeze.  In  the  best  of  the  suburban  hotels  in  this  beau- 
tiful spot  Colonel  Romeyn,  the  American  Consul,  enter- 
tained me  at  luncheon,  and  then  took  me  for  a  delightful 
stroll  in  the  groves  and  hillside  paths;  and  so  orderl}^ 
were  the  grounds,  and  so  clean  and  comfortable  was  the 
hotel,  that  I  found  it  hard  to  believe  that  I  was  not  in 
one  of  the  well-kept  houses  in  the  American  Catskills. 
The  illusion  was  strengthened  when  the  Consul  piloted 
me  to  his  bower,  a  retired  corner  of  the  piazza  curtained 
with  a  large  American  flag,  and  Mrs.  Romeyn  recalled 
her  own  circle  of  acquaintances  in  New  York,  and  in 
sympathetic  voice  sang  "Home,  Sweet  Home,"  to  the 
accompaniment  of  a  guitar.  Such  incidents  are  the 
treasure-trove  of  travel  in  a  far  countr3\  How  remote 
from   our  thoughts    during  that   lovely  afternoon  was 


156  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

apprehension  of  the  civil  war  which  within  a  year  was 
to  bring  ruin  and  devastation  upon  Chili  and  hostile 
armies  into  that  beautiful  suburb  of  Vina  del  Mar! 

During  the  spring  of  1890,  when  I  was  in  Santiago 
and  Valparaiso,  the  constitutional  conflict  which  was 
to  end  in  civil  war,  with  the  opening  of  another  year, 
was  already  in  progress.  President  Balmaceda,  after 
representing  most  faithfully  the  progressive  tendencies 
of  .the  new  Chili  which  had  made  itself  a  great  power 
on  the  West  Coast,  had  followed  the  vicious  precedents 
of  his  predecessors,  and  in  attempting  to  perpetuate  his 
political  supremacy  by  securing  the  election  of  an  un- 
worthy successor  had  tindermined  public  confidence  in 
his  patriotism.  When  elected  to  the  presidency  in 
September,  1886,  he  was  known  as  a  brilliant  orator 
and  an  adroit  tactician,  and  was  not  without  experience 
in  public  life.  He  had  been  deputy  for  many  years  and 
subsequently  senator  and  chief  minister.  As  an  official 
candidate  favored  by  his  predecessor,  he  had  been  op- 
posed by  the  advanced  wing  of  the  Liberal  party;  but 
after  his  inauguration  he  had  displayed  consummate 
tact  in  conciliating  factions,  and,  with  a  united  body  of 
congressional  adherents  behind  him,  had  succeeded  in 
enacting  several  reform  measures,  and  in  promoting  the 
commercial  prosperity  of  the  country.  During  the  first 
half  of  his  term  progress  was  made  in  the  direction  of 
the  resumption  of  specie  payments,  railways  were  con- 
structed, harbors  were  improved,  new  mining  regions 
were  opened,  hospitals  and  public  buildings  erected, 
the  schools  enlarged  and  multiplied,  and  the  encroach- 
ments of  Clericalism  successfully  resisted.  It  was  an 
era  of  progress  during  which  the  creative  energies  of  the 
most  enlightened  race  in  Spanish  America  were  power- 


CHILI   AND   ITS   CIVIL  WAR  157 

fully  stimulated.  It  was  brought  to  a  close  when  a 
statesman  of  genuine  liberal  tendencies,  endowed  with 
intellectual  force,  social  graces,  and  remarkable  politi- 
cal capacity,  was  tempted  by  sheer  lust  of  power  to 
organize  a  Ministry  of  Combat  against  Congressional 
prerogative,  to  debauch  the  army  and  the  civil  service, 
and  to  plunge  the  nation  into  a  disastrous  civil  war. 

Chili  was  invaded  during  the  sixteenth  century  by 
the  Spanish  conquerors  of  Peru ;  but  the  Indian  moun- 
taineers were  never  really  conquered.  After  a  hundred 
years  of  fierce  campaigning  the  independence  of  the 
native  tribes  was  acknowledged  by  treaty,  and  when  its 
provisions  were  violated  there  was  another  half  century 
of  Indian  warfare.  The  Chilians  have  a  fighting  strain 
in  their  native  stock,  and  a  love  of  liberty  that  is  char- 
acteristic of  a  race  of  mountaineers.  In  the  revolt 
against  Spain  the  independence  not  of  Chili  alone,  but 
of  Buenos  Ayres  and  Peru  as  well,  was  secured  by  the 
victories  on  the  plains  of  Maypu.  Under  the  Republic 
there  were  few  conspiracies,  and  there  was  only  one  year 
of  civil  war  until  the  uprising  against  Balmaceda  oc- 
curred; but  while  there  was  peace  there  was  a  close 
approach  to  oligarchical  rule.  For  sixty  years  the 
administration  was  controlled  by  a  small  number  of 
wealthy  landowners  and  a  large  body  of  priests  recruited 
mainly  from  Italy  and  Spain.  The  President  under 
the  Constitution  of  1833  was  elected  for  five  years  by 
indirect  suffrage,  and  while  technically  ineligible  for  a 
second  term  was  either  enabled  to  remain  in  office  or 
to  nominate  his  successor.  There  were  five  Cabinet 
Ministers  in  charge  of  the  main  departments  of  the 
Administration,  with  an  English  tradition  of  responsi- 
bility to  the  majority  in  the    Chambers.       Practically 


158  TKOPICAL   AMERICA 

the  two  Houses  were  recruited  from  the  aristocratic 
landowners  and  the  President  was  supreme.  Suffrage 
was  restricted  to  40,000  voters,  and  tlie  government  was 
directed  by  the  rich  land-barons.  Tlie  power  of  such 
Presidents  as  Montt,  Pinto,  and  Errazuriz  was  despotic ; 
but  they  were  sagacious  rulers  who  made  no  attempt 
to  antagonize  the  ruling  class  and  the  priests.  There 
was  peace,  but  there  was  no  government  in  Spanish 
America  less  democratic  than  that  to  which  the  hig'h- 
spirited  Chilians  submitted  without  resistance.  The 
Chilian  is  the  best  soldier  in  South  America,  not  only 
because  he  has  high  courage  bordering  upon  reckless- 
ness, but  also  because  he  has  been  taught  to  follow 
orders  with  unquestioning  obedience.  As  a  citizen  he 
has  ordinarily  been  loyal  and  submissive. 

The  victories  over  the  Peruvians  not  only  inflated 
national  pride  but  also  developed  the  political  instincts 
of  the  people.  After  the  conquest  of  the  nitrate  prov- 
inces there  was  a  popular  movement  in  favor  of  emanci- 
pation from  aristocratic  rule  and  clerical  domination. 
The  Liberal  party  with  Balmaceda  as  its  leader 
triumphed  in  the  elections  of  1886.  It  was  markedly 
hostile  to  the  influence  of  the  clergy  in  political  affairs ; 
it  favored  free  education  by  the  State,  and  the  mainte- 
nance of  civil  marriage  and  secularized  cemeteries ;  and 
it  was  committed  to  the  policy  of  land  reform.  The 
Conservatives  and  Montt-Varistas  represented  the  old 
order  of  clerical  and  aristocratic  privilege,  and  were 
overwhelmed  with  defeat.  Balmaceda  having  united 
his  followers  in  Congress  conducted  the  Administration 
most  brilliantly  for  three  years,  and  did  much  to  popu- 
larize the  Government  by  admitting  to  the  civil  service 
ambitious  law3'ers  and  politicians,  who  had  never  before 


CHILI   AND    ITS   CIVIL    WAR  159 

been  in  office.  All  went  well  until  the  close  of  1889, 
when  the  official  candidature  of  the  Minister  of  Indus- 
try and  Public  Works  startled  the  country  and  divided 
the  Liberal  party.  If  Balmaceda's  favorite,  San  Fu- 
entes,  had  been  either  an  experienced  or  a  reputable 
official,  less  resistance  would  have  been  encountered; 
but  he  was  conspicuous  mainly  for  his  stock  operations 
on  change.  When  he  unfolded  as  an  electoral  pro- 
gramme a  vast  scheme  of  public  works  and  railway  con- 
struction, and  Balmaceda  made  no  concealment  of  an 
intention  of  favoring  his  canvass  for  the  presidency 
with  all  the  resources  of  official  patronage,  the  Liberal 
majority  sought  to  avert  the  crisis  by  communicating 
to  the  President  privately  their  determination  to  oppose 
so  unworthy  a  candidate.  Temporary  concessions  were 
made  to  the  majority,  the  Ministry  was  reorganized  and 
Congress  adjourned  after  expressing  confidence  in  the 
Government  by  voting  the  customary  financial  supplies. 
In  January,  1890,  this  Ministry  was  dismissed  and 
another  recruited  from  most  zealous  adherents  was 
brought  into  office.  Balmaceda  instead  of  abandoninsr 
the  candidature  of  his  partisan  had  determined  to  def}^ 
Congress  and  the  leaders  of  his  party,  and  to  carry  the 
election  by  official  pressure. 

This  was  the  political  situation  as  it  was  explained 
to  me  in  Santiago ;  and  while  there  was  intense  excite- 
ment among  the  politicians,  there  was  a  general  agree- 
ment even  among  the  keenest  observers  that  Balmaceda 
would  finally  yield  to  the  will  of  Congress.  The 
inflexible  determination  of  that  misguided,  obstinate, 
but  brilliant  man,  to  rule  or  ruin  the  country  was  not 
then  suspected.  The  Ministry  remained  in  office  until 
May  and  was  then  replaced  by  another  still  more  auda- 


160  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

cious,  which  met  Congress  with  a  defiant  declaration 
that  it  was  not  dependent  upon  votes  of  confidence, 
but  only  upon  the  President's  favor.  Congress  replied 
by  a  vote  of  censure  passed  by  three-fourths  of  the 
members.  The  Ministers  did  not  resign,  although  the 
financial  credits  were  exhausted,  and  a  new  budget 
required  authorization.  Congress  suspended  in  July 
the  collection  of  revenues  until  a  Ministry  commanding 
its  confidence  should  be  formed.  For  a  month  no  taxes 
were  paid  and  Balmaceda  refused  to  yield.  Then  he 
relaxed  his  opposition,  appointed  a  Ministry  composed 
of  influential  men,  and  announced  that  official  influence 
would  not  be  exerted  in  the  electoral  canvass.  Con- 
gress met  him  in  a  conciliatory  spirit,  and  voted  finan- 
cial supplies  for  six  months. 

As  soon  as  the  budget  had  been  authorized  the  elec- 
toral canvass  of  San  Fuentes  was  resumed,  and  local 
appointments  were  made  in  his  interest.  The  Ministry, 
after  vainly  expostulating  with  the  President,  resigned 
office  in  October.  The  Ministry  of  Combat  was  restored. 
Menaced  as  it  was  with  impeachment  proceedings,  it 
appealed  to  Balmaceda  to  anticipate  hostile  action  by 
the  exercise  of  his  constitutional  power  of  declaring 
the  session  of  Congress  closed.  This  was  done  as 
easily  as  Balmaceda  could  bar  and  lock  the  doors  of  his 
house.  A  Committee  empowered  by  law  to  meet  during 
recess  of  Congress  flooded  the  Executive  Mansion  with 
protests,  recommendations,  and  menaces;  but  he  had 
gone  too  far  to  retreat.  With  the  end  of  the  year 
authority  for  the  collection  of  revenues  and  taxes  and 
the  maintenance  of  the  army  and  navy  ceased.  On 
January  1,  1891,  the  budget  was  decreed  by  Executive 
authority,  the  army  was  promised  a  large   increase  of 


CHILI   AND    ITS   CIVIL   WAR  161 

pay,  public  meetings  were  dispersed  by  the  police  and 
a  military  dictatorship  was  virtually  proclaimed.  The 
members  of  Congress,  not  being  allowed  to  assemble, 
united  in  a  memorial  declaring  the  presidential  office  to 
be  vacant.  The  navy  revolted  against  the  government, 
and,  after  failing  to  excite  a  pojiular  uprising  in  Val- 
paraiso, carried  the  Congressional  leaders  to  Iquique  for 
the  conquest  of  the  nitrate  coast  as  a  base  of  military 
operations  against  Balmaceda. 

If  the  army  had  joined  the  navy  the  revolution  would 
have  triumphed  without  bloodshed.  Popular  move- 
ments had  been  planned  both  in  Santiago  and  Valpa- 
raiso, but  for  some  reason  they  hung  fire.  President 
Balmaceda  at  once  declared  the  country  under  martial 
law ;  but  there  was  no  popular  reaction  against  his  dic- 
tatorship. Valparaiso,  while  proud  of  the  navy,  was 
dazed  and  unsympathetic  when  the  fleet  turned  against 
the  government.  The  police  did  not  swerve  from  their 
loyalty  to  the  Executive.  The  army,  instead  of  rallying 
to  the  support  of  the  Congressional  leaders,  remained  in 
the  barracks  and  criticised  the  lack  of  common  sense 
and  patriotism  displayed  by  the  politicians.  Santiago 
was  heavily  garrisoned  and  brought  under  police  com- 
pression. There  were  few  signs  of  disaffection  in  the 
southern  cities.  There  was  no  popular  uprising  against 
the  military  dictator.  The  masses  of  the  population 
waited  to  see  what  would  come  of  the  naval  revolt,  and, 
meanwhile,  the  President  and  his  Ministers  acted  with 
inflexible  purpose.  Martial  law  was  proclaimed.  The 
officers  of  the  insurgent  fleet  were  denounced  as  pirates. 
The  army  was  heavily  recruited.  The  prisons  were 
filled  with  suspects.  Private  houses  were  searched  for 
incriminating  correspondence.     Men  were   flogged  for 


162  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

refusing  to  reveal  tlie  hiding-places  of  prominent  revo- 
lutionists. The  estates  of  members  of  the  Opposition  in 
Congress  were  plundered  and  their  houses  burned. 
Political  leaders  were  proscribed  and  driven  into  exile. 
The  election  laws  were  modified  to  suit  the  purposes  of 
the  Ministers.  Business  was  paralyzed.  Disorder  in 
the  currency  and  national  finances  became  confusion 
worse  confounded.  There  was  a  rise  in  the  price  of 
food,  and  a  ruinous  increase  in  the  cost  of  living. 
Public  order  in  the  cities  was  maintained  by  rigorous 
measures  of  repression,  and  terrorism  was  the  order  of 
the  day.  At  the  same  time  preparations  were  made  for 
general  elections,  a  new  Congress  was  brought  into 
existence,  and  Don  Claudio  Vicuna,  a  wealthy  land- 
owner of  high  repute,  was  accepted  as  the  candidate 
who  was  to  succeed  Balmaceda  as  President. 

The  revolutionists  had  at  the  outset  a  fleet  without 
an  army.  Within  nine  weeks  a  base  of  operations  was 
secured  in  the  nitrate  provinces  where  they  could  hold 
out  for  an  indefinite  period,  and  recruit  and  arm  a  force 
for  the  conquest  of  Valparaiso.  With  their  fleet  in 
command  of  the  sea,  and  with  hundreds  of  miles  of 
desert  between  them  and  Santiago,  they  were  protected 
against  attack  by  Balmaceda's  superior  force.  With 
the  nitrate  shipments  under  their  control,  the}^  had  a 
large  source  of  revenue  available  for  military  purposes. 
Five  months  of  desultory  naval  warfare  and  military 
preparations  followed.  Balmaceda  had  seized  the 
Imperial,  the  best  steamer  of  the  Chilian  line,  and 
organized  a  small  flotilla  of  torpedo-boats.  These  ves- 
sels attempted  to  harass  the  Congressionalists  and  were 
successful  in  sinking  the  ironclad,  Blanco  Encalada. 
Seven  torpedoes  were  launched  at  her  on  a  dark  night, 


CHILI   AND   ITS   CIVIL   WAR  163 

when  she  was  at  anchor  in  port,  and  the  assailants 
escaped  after  destroying  the  most  formidable  vessel  of 
the  fleet.  The  Congressionalists  gradually  recruited  an 
army  of  10,000  men,  and  remained  on  the  defensive 
until  they  could  properly  arm  it.  The  surrender  of  the 
Itata  at  Iquiqne  to  the  American  fleet  after  her  arrival 
with  a  cargo  of  arms  and  ammunition  from  San  Diego 
delayed  offensive  operations  for  several  weeks.  Envoys 
had  been  sent  to  the  United  States  and  to  Europe  to 
solicit  recognition  of  belligerent  rights  ;  but  these  over- 
tures failed  except  with  the  Bolivian  Government,  with 
which  a  convention  was  negotiated.  Meanwhile  Bal- 
maceda  had  succeeded  in  securing  the  vessels  of  war 
building  in  Europe. 

There  was  no  time  to  lose,  if  full  advantage  of  their 
naval  supremacy  was  to  be  taken.  When  the  Maypu 
arrived  at  Iquique,  with  ample  supplies  of  rifles  and 
ammunition,  offensive  operations  were  decided  upon. 
The  landing  at  Quinteros  Bay  was  followed  by  a  battle 
at  Colmo,  and  after  a  brief  interval  by  the  decisive 
engagement  at  Placilla  on  August  28.  The  fighting 
began  at  seven  in  the  morning,  and  before  eleven  the 
Balmacedists  were  routed.  Two  of  their  generals, 
Alzerreca  and  Barbosa,  with  1000  men,  were  killed, 
3000  men  were  prisoners,  and  the  remnant  of  the  force 
of  10,000  men  was  scuttling  from  the  battle  field.  The 
issue  was  never  doubtful  after  the  first  gun  was  fired, 
and  a  complete  victory  was  won,  with  the  loss  of  400 
men.  By  one  o'clock  Valparaiso  was  entered  by  the 
advance  guard,  and  by  nightfall  the  victorious  army 
was  encamped  in  the  city  with  every  indication  of 
public  rejoicing.  Balmaceda's  suicide  at  the  Argen- 
tine Embassy  in  Santiago  brought  his  inglorious  career 


164  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

to  a  close.  With  the  election  of  Admiral  Montt  to  the 
Presidenc}^  Chili  entered  npon  a  new  period  of  consti- 
tutional progress. 

There  is  hardly  a  Spanish-American  country  which 
has  not  had  at  one  time  or  another  its  Balmaceda. 
Military  dictatorships  have  been  frequent  in  Uruguay, 
the  Argentine,  Paraguay,  Bolivia,  Peru,  Colombia, 
Venezuela,  Central  America,  and  Mexico.  Ordinarily 
the  executive  who  defied  the  legislators  and  secured  by 
the  use  of  the  army  either  the  election  of  a  favorite,  or 
his  own  continuance  in  office,  has  been  successful  and 
usurpations  have  been  tolerated.  The  moral  of  Balma- 
ceda's  end  is  that  public  opinion  in  Chili  has  become 
so  enlightened  that  military  cabals  and  personal  govern- 
ment are  now  impracticable.  The  financial  results  of 
the  war  were  most  deplorable.  When  the  struggle 
opened  there  was  a  surplus  of  $30,000,000  in  the  treas- 
ury, preparations  were  making  for  specie  resumption, 
and  the  national  debt  was  not  heavier  than  so  pros- 
perous a  country  could  carry  without  inconvenience. 
Balmaceda  began  by  bringing  $10,000,000  in  paper  into 
circulation,  and  by  draining  the  silver  reserve,  and  he 
ended  by  setting  the  printing-presses  in  operation  and 
emitting  issue  after  issue  of  depreciated  money.  The 
triumph  of  representative  government  over  military 
usurpation  has  been  purchased  at  high  cost  since  the 
finances  were  left  in  great  disorder  and  all  industries 
were  paralyzed.  The  Chilians  are  a  hardy  and  ener- 
getic race,  and  they  will  not  be  overcome  by  difficulties 
and  hardships.  With  peace  will  come  political  reform, 
constitutional  revision,  industrial  development,  and 
commercial  enterprise.  Their  future  is  secure,  for 
they  are  the  most  vigorous  and  patriotic  race  in  South 
America. 


IX 

THE  RAINLESS   COAST 

A  STUPENDOUS  NATURAL  PHENOMENON  —  THE  CHILIAN  SEA- 
BOARD—  ANTOFAGASTA  AND  IQUIQUE — NITRATE  BEDS  — 
THE  FLAG  AT  ARICA THE  PERUVIAN  COAST REPUDI- 
ATION    OF     PAPER      MONEY  — ■  DOWN      THE     ANDES      IN      A 

HAND -CAR MR.     MEIGGS'S      ENGINEERING     FEATS  AN 

IRRATIONAL    NATIONAL     POLICY  —  A     MASTER-STROKE     OF 
FINANCE    AND    DIPLOMACY 

In  sailing  northward  from  Valparaiso  along  the  Chil- 
ian coast,  the  traveller  is  confronted  with  a  stupendous 
natural  phenomenon.  He  enters  a  rainless  zone  with- 
out vegetation  or  resources  for  sustaining  human  life. 
At  Coquimbo,  the  first  anchorage  in  the  voyage  from 
Valparaiso,  he  is  well  within  the  southern  edge  of  this 
arid  district.  Thence  for  over  2000  miles  he  is  to 
follow  a  mountainous  coast  where  rain  is  virtually 
unknown.  This  zone  extends  inland  to  the  slope  of 
the  Andes,  and  varies  in  width  from  twenty  to  eighty 
miles.  It  includes  one-third  of  the  Chilian  seaboard 
and  the  entire  coast  of  Peru  to  the  Gulf  of  Guayaquil. 
There  the  seaboard  Sahara  ends  abruptly  with  the 
sharpest  possible  transition  from  bleak  mountain  head- 
lands to  a  coast  clad  with  verdure  and  nourished  by  a 
vapor-laden  atmosphere. 

The  causes  of  these  astonishing  phenomena  are 
explained  by  scientific  writers.     It  is  evident  that  the 

165 


166  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

chief  agent  in  producing  this  belt  of  desert  seaboard 
is  the  Andes.  The  trade  winds  strike  Northern  Brazil 
loaded  with  vapor,  and  currents  of  air  continuing  in 
an  oblique  westward  drift  across  the  continent,  supply 
the  Plate  and  the  Amazon  river  systems  with  abundant 
rainfall.  When  these  currents  beat  against  the  ram- 
parts of  the  Andes,  the  remaining  moisture  is  wrung 
from  them  by  the  condensing  power  of  low  tempera- 
tures at  extreme  altitudes.  From  the  crest  of  the 
range  there  are  no  sources  of  evaporation  until  the 
tranquil  levels  of  the  Pacific  are  reached.  The  air 
currents  in  their  passage  to  the  coast  are  without 
moisture.  The  snows  on  the  eastern  slopes  and  central 
summits  of  the  Andes  are  final  deposits  of  vapor  which 
exhaust  the  water  supply  of  the  Atlantic  trades.  There 
is  nothing  in  reserve  for  the  strip  of  seaboard  and  the 
intervening  mountain  slopes.  Cooperating  with  this 
primal  cause  is  the  prevailing  wind  on  the  Pacific. 
From  Tierra  del  Fuego  a  branch  of  the  Antarctic  cur- 
rent follows  the  northern  trend  of  the  West  Coast,  and 
winds  accompany  it  to  the  equator,  absorbing  moisture 
all  the  way,  but  not  swerving  eastward  after  passing 
the  Southern  Chilian  coast.  These  aerial  currents  in 
the  latitudes  of  Northern  Chili  and  Peru  have  gained 
by  heat  additional  power  of  absorption,  but  carry  their 
ample  supplies  of  vapor  northward,  without  being 
diverted  to  the  coast,  with  its  mountain  buttresses. 
The  air  coming  from  the  Andean  summits  has  been 
squeezed  dry  by  those  mighty  condensers.  Rain  storms 
from  the  west  never  blow  inland.  The  rainless  zone  is 
thus  deprived  of  all  means  of  water  supply,  except  the 
few  meagre  streams  tumbling  down  the  western  slopes 
from  the  upland  snow-drifts. 


THE   KAINLESS    COAST  167 

The  traveller  embarking  as  I  did  on  a  steamer  at 
Valparaiso  for  Iquique  at  once  discovers  that  he  is 
bound  for  intermediate  ports,  which  derive  all  their 
food  supplies  from  Central  and  Southern  Chili.  There 
are  droves  of  cattle  on  the  lower  deck  to  provide  fresh 
meat  for  the  towns  of  the  rainless  zone.  The  afterpart 
of  the  vessel  is  largely  occupied  by  venders  of  vegeta- 
bles, fruits,  butter,  eggs,  chickens,  ducks,  and  hams. 
They  are  allowed  to  display  their  wares  in  small  stalls 
and  big  baskets,  and  when  the  steamer  arrives  in  port, 
market-dealers  swarm  out  in  small  boats  to  obtain  sup- 
plies from  these  pedlers.  Every  steamer  of  the  English 
and  Chilian  lines  is  converted  into  a  floating  market 
all  the  way  from  Valparaiso  to  Iquique,  where  the 
stalls  are  removed  and  the  hucksters  dispose  of  the 
remnants  of  their  stock  on  shore.  The  seaboard  has 
to  be  fed  week  by  week,  almost  day  by  day,  from  the 
South. 

The  Chilian  seaboard  extends  from  the  Peruvian 
frontier  beyond  Arica  to  Cape  Horn,  a  distance  of  over 
2500  miles,  and  comprising  forty  degrees  of  latitude, 
and  an  area  of  nearly  300,000  English  square  miles. 
The  northern  belt,  stretching  from  the  seventeenth  to 
the  twenty-ninth  parallels,  is  without  rain.  It  contains 
nitrate  deposits  and  silver  and  copper  mines,  and  has 
inexhaustible  mineral  wealth.  From  the  twenty-ninth 
to  the  thirty-third  parallels  is  an  intermediate  zone  with 
fertile  valleys  and  mineral  resources.  Valparaiso  and 
Santiago  are  on  the  southern  boundary  of  this  semi- 
agricultural  zone.  South  of  the  thirty-third  parallel 
stretches  the  main  agricultural  belt,  with  a  copious  rain- 
fall. This  is  Chili,  the  home  of  an  essentially  maritime 
nation,  accustomed  to  struggle  against  nature  and  to 


168  TROPICAL    AMERICA 

overcome  every  physical  obstacle  to  its  progress.  In 
the  far  south  its  fishermen  combat  storm  and  glacier. 
On  the  Andean  slopes  its  mountaineers  are  the  hardiest 
of  farmers.  In  the  northern  deserts  its  mining  camps 
are  pitched  among  the  bleak  mountain  buttresses  lining 
the  coasts.  The  Chilians  are  a  robust  race,  equipped 
for  occupying  unnatural  homes,  and  trading  in  the 
exposed  roadsteads  scattered  among  the  barren  cliffs  of 
their  northern  coasts. 

A  remarkable  feature  of  the  coast  scenery  is  its  uni- 
formity. There  is  a  continuous  terrace  of  flat-topped  cliffs, 
generally  a  thousand  and  sometimes  two  thousand  feet 
high,  retreating  abruptly  from  the  sea  and  leaving  in  front 
of  the  anchorages  narrow  shelves  of  beach,  where  the 
towns  are  built.  This  coast  wall  has  a  uniform  direction 
north  and  south,  and  presents  an  aspect  of  singular 
regularity.  Back  of  it  are  sometimes  seen  the  slopes 
of  the  maritime  range ;  but  ordinarily  it  limits  the  view 
with  its  reddish-gray,  weather-beaten  fagade.  Devoid 
of  vegetation  and  wooded  slopes,  it  is  wearisome  and 
monotonous.  There  is  a  brief  hour  in  the  day  when 
the  dull  red  fades  into  gray  and  then  deepens  into  blue 
under  the  slanting  rays  of  the  setting  sun  with  its  pale 
lemon  fires ;  and  then  the  coast  scenery  is  beautiful. 
That  is  the  transfiguring  effect  of  the  wonderful  sunsets 
of  the  South  Pacific,  —  sunsets  as  delicate  in  their  gold 
and  silver  tinting  as  those  of  the  South  Atlantic  are 
gorgeous  with  flaming  scarlet  and  royal  purple. 

As  for  the  desolate  towns  on  the  coast,  it  is  beyond 
the  pencilling  of  that  supreme  artist,  the  sun,  at  morn- 
ing, noon,  or  dusk,  to  impart  beauty  or  picturesqueness 
to  them.  There  are  rows  of  lumber  sheds  painted  brown 
or   yellow  or   blue,  a  sandy  plaza  with  an  ugly  little 


THE   RAINLESS   COAST  169 

church  of  iron  or  wood,  and  clusters  of  bar-rooms  in  the 
main  street.  Sometimes  there  are  a  few  tall  chimneys 
added,  and  whenever  the  port  is  of  any  size,  there  is  a 
platform  in  the  plaza  for  a  brass  band.  Coquimbo  is 
one  of  these  coast-towns  and  Caldera  is  another,  the 
port  of  Copiap6,  a  city  with  a  population  of  20,000, 
whose  prosperity  is  declining,  or  at  least  stationary, 
through  the  failure  of  some  of  its  oldest  mines.  At 
Caldera  water  is  obtained  from  the  river  Copiap6, 
several  miles  away,  and  there  are  a  few  stunted  bushes 
and  flowering  plants  to  be  seen.  Chanaral  is  another 
forlorn  place  with  mining  connections.  Taltal,  at  the 
foot  of  sloping  granite  and  sienite  hills,  is  the  receiving- 
point  for  supplies  for  several  mining  towns  to  which  a 
railway  leads.  Dread  of  earthquakes  and  tidal  waves 
stifles  all  civic  ambition  or  private  enterprise.  Cheap 
frame  houses  and  shops  alone  are  built,  and  as  no 
prudent  native  will  consent  to  sleep  above  the  ground 
floor,  all  the  dwellings  are  low-studded  structures. 
There  are  no  interior  courts,  for  there  are  neither  trees, 
nor  plants,  nor  vines  to  convert  them  into  cool  and 
shady  retreats.  The  highest  point  of  social  distinction 
is  reached  when  a  resident  builds  on  the  plaza  a  square 
house  of  one  story,  and  carries  a  railing  around  the  flat- 
roof,  with  a  line  of  benches  where  he  and  his  family 
can  sit  and  hear  the  band  play  waltzes  in  the  cool  of 
the  evening.  When  that  has  been  done,  the  highest 
prize  in  the  lottery  of  existence  has  been  won. 

These  ports,  while  presenting  to  eyes  unaccustomed 
to  the  scenery  of  a  desert  coast  a  wretched  and  forlorn 
aspect,  are  centres  of  commercial  activity.  Copper,  sil- 
ver, and  nitrates  are  greater  sources  of  national  wealth 
than  the  wheat  supplies  of  Talcahuano  and  the  South. 


170  TROPICAL    AMERICA 

Where  a  prominent  mining-camp  has  been  pitched  a 
railway  has  been  constructed  either  to  Serena  or  to 
Copiap6,  or  directly  to  the  seaboard;  and  the  mineral 
deposits  when  unearthed  are  exported  from  the  coast  in 
enormous  quantities.  The  Copiapo  country  was  for- 
merly the  richest  of  the  silver-producing  districts,  and 
is  still  a  great  mining  centre.  Serena  is  the  seat  of 
copper  as  well  as  silver  raining.  Chili  once  regulated 
the  price  of  copper  in  the  London  market ;  but  it  has 
lost  its  supremacy  through  the  development  of  richer 
mines  in  the  United  States.  Its  capitalists  are  now 
making  great  efforts  to  enlarge  the  production  by  the 
introduction  of  improved  methods  of  mining  and  smelt- 
ing; and  they  have  succeeded  within  a  few  years  in 
demonstrating  the  incorrectness  of  the  assumption  that 
the  best  and  richest  veins  had  been  worked  out.  It 
may  be  a  barren  coast ;  but  the  maritime  range  is  brim- 
ming with  treasure  for  a  race  which  has  the  pluck  to 
maintain  an  unequal  combat  with  nature. 

The  same  natural  causes  which  have  converted  the 
coast  into  a  desert  have  stored  it  with  wealth.  The 
vast  accumulations  of  guano  and  nitrate  of  soda  could 
not  have  been  formed  in  any  other  than  a  rainless  zone. 
The  retention  of  the  fertilizing  properties  of  these  de- 
posits is  entirely  due  to  the  absence  of  moisture.  The 
cotton,  sugar,  and  grazing  valleys  of  Peru  are  enriched 
by  rains  on  the  Andean  slopes.  The  islands  and  desert 
levels  are  enriched  by  the  lack  of  rain.  Nature  may 
be  contradictory  in  its  processes,  but  its  purposes  are 
always  beneficent.  It  is  the  greed  of  men  and  nations 
that  converts  nature's  bounty  into  a  blight  and  a  curse. 
Guano  and  nitrates  have  been  the  chief  cause  of  all  the 
evils  wrought  by  rapacious  speculators,  reckless  finan- 


THE    RAINLESS   COAST  171 

ciers,  and  hostile  armies  on  this  coast.  Peru  was  pros- 
perous and  happy  until  this  source  of  national  wealth 
was  developed  on  a  large  scale.  When  it  was  discov- 
ered that  the  manure  deposits  had  only  to  be  worked  in 
order  to  yield  enormous  revenues,  agricultural  and  min- 
ing industries  were  suffered  to  decline.  A  great  railway 
system  was  planned,  and  reckless  expenditures  were 
sanctioned.  The  bondholders  came  in,  and  the  re- 
sources of  the  rainless  coast  were  mortofa^ed  to  them. 
The  discovery  of  the  nitrate  beds  of  Tarapacd  tended 
to  depreciate  the  value  of  guano,  and  the  Peruvian  Gov- 
ernment established  a  monopoly  over  them.  Chili  had 
been  coveting  these  resources  of  the  coast  and  intriguing 
for  the  control  of  the  nitrate  industry  at  Antofagasta. 
The  war  of  conquest  was  brought  on  under  various  pre- 
texts ;  but  it  would  never  have  been  fought  if  the  rainless 
coast  had  not  been  imbedded  with  nitrogeneous  deposits. 
It  was  the  same  rich  seaboard  which  provided  the  vic- 
torious Congressional  faction  during  the  recent  Civil 
War  with  a  base  of  operations,  where,  secure  against 
attack,  they  could  recruit  an  army  of  sturdy  miners 
with  the  revenues  of  the  nitrate  shipments. 

Antofagasta  is  one  of  the  main  gateways  by  which 
Bolivia  is  approached.  It  lies  on  the  edge  of  the  Ata- 
cama  desert,  which  extends  from  the  Cordilleras  to  the 
sea.  Once  in  ten  years  there  may  be  a  heavy  rain  in 
this  barren  land,  and  then  the  deserts  are  clothed  with 
lower  forms  of  stunted  vegetation  for  a  brief  space ;  but 
during  the  remaining  nine  years  there  will  hardly  be  a 
shower  from  January  to  December.  Water  is  obtained 
mainly  by  distillation  and  is  sold  at  high  prices  and 
delivered  from  house  to  house  every  morning.  A  more 
desolate-looking  town  could  not  be  found  on  any  save 


172  TEOPICAL   AMERICA 

a  rainless  coast.  There  is  a  small  church  on  a  bleak 
plaza,  and  there  are  drinking-saloons,  and  rows  of  frame 
houses  of  the  plainest  sort.  The  most  ambitious  deco- 
rative effect  in  the  architecture  of  the  town  is  the  paint- 
ing of  a  wooden  front  in  imitation  of  a  brick  wall. 
This  is  Antofagasta,  one  of  the  great  prizes  of  the 
war  of  devastation  fought  for  the  possession  of  the 
nitrate  beds. 

A  high,  angry  surf  beats  against  the  rocky  shore  on 
which  Tquique  is  built.  There  is  only  an  open,  unpro- 
tected roadstead  where  anchorage  would  be  dangerous  if 
the  Pacific  were  not  the  calmest  and  most  trustworthy 
of  seas.  The  boatmen  in  landing  passengers  from 
steamers  follow  a  circuitous  passage  between  ledges 
of  rock  over  which  the  surf  rushes  with  tremendous 
force.  Fortunate  is  the  traveller  who  passes  through 
the  breakers  without  a  shower  bath  ;  but  even  with 
coat  and  hat  copiously  sprinkled  with  salt  water,  he  is 
thankful  to  have  escaped  the  upsetting  of  the  boat, 
which  has  seemed  imminent  at  the  most  dangerous 
point.  The  background  for  these  lines  of  foaming 
breakers  is  a  series  of  barren  mountains  bordered  by 
a  desert.  Straggling  along  the  curves  of  the  shore  are 
rows  of  low  frame-houses,  drinking-saloons,  and  shops, 
separated  by  broad  streets.  Where  the  sandy  level  is 
widest,  at  the  base  of  the  sloping  flanks  of  the  coast 
range,  the  streets  are  multiplied  until  homes  are  pro- 
vided for  a  population  of  20,000,  with  an  additional 
5000  in  the  suburbs  of  the  district.  Iquique,  with  its 
unnatural  surroundings  and  the  striking  disadvantages 
of  its  wretched  harbor,  is  the  largest  and  most  flourish- 
ing coast-town  between  Valparaiso  and  Callao.  In 
commercial  importance  it  ranks  after  Valparaiso,  since 


THE   RAINLESS   COAST  173 

it  is  the  centre  of  the  nitrate  trade.  Pisagiia  is  becom- 
ing a  formidable  rival  to  it,  and  the  extension  of  the 
railway  in  the  interior  may  render  Patillos  an  important 
nitrate  port.  Nature  has  dried  up  tlie  sources  of  life  and 
verdure  on  the  sterile  hillsides  and  scattered  fragments 
of  ancient  seawall  in  the  roadstead.  Nature  has  also 
stored  in  the  deserts  treasures  which  are  apparently 
inexhaustible. 

Iquique  is  the  chief  port  of  the  province  of  Tarapac4, 
which  was  formerly  the  southernmost  district  of  Peru. 
Crude  nitrate  of  soda  was  discovered  about  1830,  and 
the  first  shipment  was  made  in  1833  to  England.  It 
was  used  in  the  manufacture  of  nitric  acid  and  also  as 
a  fertilizer,  and  the  quantity  exported  from  Iquique  in- 
creased rapidly  to  7,084,766  quintals  in  1878,  the  year 
preceding  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  In  consequence  of 
excessive  production  both  the  European  and  American 
markets  were  overstocked  and  the  price  heavily  de- 
clined after  the  war.  The  Chilian  producers  united 
in  an  agreement  to  limit  the  exports  until  the  surplus 
could  be  worked  off  and  better  prices  secured.  In 
1887  there  was  a  revival  of  the  nitrate  industry  in  con- 
sequence of  a  larger  foreign  demand,  and  the  exports 
of  salts  increased  in  value  to  20,606,454  quintals  in 
1889.  These  figures  reveal  the  rapid  development  of 
the  nitrate  industry  under  Chilian  administration  of  the 
province  of  Tarapac^. 

The  deposits  are  not  found  on  the  western  slopes  of 
the  maritime  range,  but  at  the  foot  of  the  opposite 
flanks  of  the  mountains.  On  the  westei-n  edge  of  the 
wide  valley  between  the  central  chain  of  the  Andes 
and  the  coast  range  there  are  low  foot-hills.  There 
only  are  the  beds  of  nitrate  salts.     The  most  reasonable 


174  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

explanation  o'f  their  existence  presupposes  the  conver- 
sion of  the  West  Coast  from  sea-bottom  to  mountain 
and  valley.  As  the  coast  range  emerged  by  volcanic 
action  above  the  sea,  salt  water  lagoons  filled  with  sea- 
weed and  marine  vegetation  would  naturally  have  been 
left  between  it  and  the  main  Andean  wall.  The  de- 
composition of  the  seaweed  would  have  released  nitric 
acid  to  enter  into  combination  with  shells  and  chalky 
limestone,  and  the  gradual  evaporation  of  the  salt 
water  would  have  produced  these  nitrogeneous  deposits. 
Probably  the  whole  valley  was  originally  embedded 
with  nitrate,  but  the  deposits  were  washed  away  in  the 
centre  and  on  the  western  slope  of  the  Andes.  The 
masses  which  remain  were  protected  by  the  conforma- 
tion of  the  low  coast  I'ange.  If  this  belt  had  not  been 
rainless  for  thousands  of  years,  these  wonderful  accu- 
mulations would  not  have  been  preserved,  for  atmos- 
pheric moisture  would  have  destroyed  them.  The 
wealth  of  the  nitrate  coast  is  the  direct  result  of 
the  natural  conditions  which  deprive  it  of  verdure  and 
agricultural  resources.  This  is  a  fact  which  reconciles 
Chilian  and  foreign  residents  alike  to  their  life  in  a 
coast  Sahara.  The  Pampa  del  Tamarugal  has  the  out- 
ward aspects  of  a  barren  valley  of  death ;  but  it  is  a 
vast  chemical  laboratory  in  which  life-giving  elements 
are  stored  in  inexhaustible  supplies  for  renewing  the 
productive  energies  of  other  climes.  Only  the  richest 
beds  are  now  worked,  but  the  deposits  extend  along 
the  coast  for  many  hundreds  of  miles.  There  are  sup- 
plies adequate  for  the  requirements  of  centuries  of  suc- 
cessful agriculture  in  Europe  and  America. 

The  wonderful  development  of  the  salt  industries  is 
largely  to  be  attributed  to  the  enterprise    of  Colonel 


THE   KAINLESS    COAST  175 

North,  known  along  this  coast  as  the  Nitrate  King.  He 
has  amassed  a  great  fortune  since  the  war  between 
Chili  and  Peru,  and  now  resides  in  London,  where  he 
largely  controls  the  nitrate  market.  He  was  an  intelli- 
gent engineer  who  had  surveyed  the  salt  beds  of  Tara- 
paca,  and  formed  an  accurate  estimate  of  the  mineral 
wealth  of  the  region.  The  Peruvian  government  had 
established  a  State  monopoly  before  the  war,  purchasing 
the  nitrate  lands  and  works,  and  issuing  bonds  for 
them.  At  the  close  of  the  hostilities  it  was  generally 
expected  that  Chili  would  maintain  a  similar  monopoly, 
but  the  victorious  Government  wisely  decided  to  open  the 
industry  to  free  competition  and  to  content  itself  with 
receiving  an  export  duty  on  the  product.  Colonel 
North  began  operations  by  purchasing  bonds  issued  by 
the  Peruvian  government,  and  after  securing  control 
of  nitrate  beds,  he  formed  companies  in  England  for 
working  them.  He  also  bought  the  stock  of  some  of  the 
nitrate  railways  at  depreciated  rates  and  organized  new 
companies  for  operating  and  extending  them.  The 
Chilian  government  encouraged  him  to  persevere  in 
his  operations,  and  made  no  attempt  to  interfere  with 
the  rights  of  private  owners  interested  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  resources  of  the  coast.  The  administration 
in  Iquique  and  Tarapac4  has  steadily  improved  since 
the  conquest,  and  the  population  is  reconciled  to  the 
new  political  order  which  has  promoted  the  material 
progress  of  a  province  that  was  in  a  state  of  stagnation 
before  the  war.  Many  of  the  Peruvian  residents  have 
sold  their  property  and  gone  north,  but  there  has  been 
an  influx  of  new  settlers  from  Chili  of  superior  ca- 
pacity and  enterprise.  The  railway  system  has  been 
extended,    new    factories    have    been    built,    and    the 


176  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

province  has  received  a  great  impetus  under  Chilian 
administration. 

Iquique  has  played  an  important  part  in  the  last  two 
West  Coast  wars.  The  decisive  sea-fight  of  the  war  with 
Peru  occurred  in  the  harbor.  While  the  Chilians  were 
blockading  Callao,  the  Peruvian  iron-clads,  the  Lide- 
pendenc'ia  and  the  Haascar,  headed  southward,  possibly 
with  the  intention  of  bombarding  Valparaiso.  At 
Iquique  they  encountered  two  contemptible  adversaries, 
the  wooden  ship  Esmeralda^  with  eight,  and  the  little 
gunboat  Oovadonga,  with  two  guns.  The  Huascar^ 
well  handled  by  her  commander,  soon  had  the  Esmeralda 
at  her  mercy.  The  Chilian  commander  attempted  to 
capture  the  Huasear  by  running  his  own  ship  alongside 
and  screaming  to  his  men  to  board  her  and  use  their 
knives.  The  vessels  were  separated  before  his  crew 
could  follow  him  as  he  sprang  to  the  enemy's  deck.  He 
was  instantly  shot  down,  and  his  ship  sank  to  the  bottom 
with  her  crew  of  eighty  men,  a  few  survivors  alone 
escaping.  This  was  the  daring  exploit  for  which 
Arturo  Prat's  statue  is  raised  in  Valparaiso  and  else- 
where in  Chili.  If  the  sea-fight  had  ended  with  the 
sinking  of  his  own  vessel,  the  Peruvian  ships  might  have 
proceeded  on  their  course  to  Valparaiso  and  shelled  the 
town.  The  real  hero  of  the  sea-fight  was  the  shrewd 
commander  of  the  Covadonga^  who  when  followed  by 
the  Independencia,  a  ship  which  outsailed  the  gunboat 
and  would  have  been  certain  to  overtake  her,  was  crafty 
as  Ulysses,  and  ran  close  in  shore.  The  hidependencia 
went  aground  on  the  rocks  and  was  a  total  wreck.  It 
was  a  staggering  blow,  from  which  Peru  never  re- 
covered. 

The  same  nitrate  coast  was  the  centre  of  the  Con- 


THE   RAINLESS   COAST  177 

gressional  operations  during  the  Civil  War  of  1891.  All 
the  skirmishes  by  which  the  insurgents  secured  posses- 
sion of  the  province  of  Tarapaca  and  control  over  more 
than  one-half  of  the  revenues  of  Chili  took  place  along 
the  line  of  railway  connecting  Pisagua  with  Iquique. 
As  most  of  the  railways  were  operated  and  the  nitrate 
deposits  worked  by  companies  formed  and  registered  in 
England,  the  sympathies  of  that  country  were  largely 
enlisted  on  the  side  of  the  insurgents,  especially  as 
Balmaceda,  whether  justly  or  unjustly,  was  suspected 
of  harboring  a  design  of  depriving  foreigners  of  a  great 
source  of  wealth  and  of  converting  the  salt  beds  into 
State  properties.  The  overthrow  of  the  Dictator  could 
never  have  been  accomplished  without  the  possession  of 
Iquique  and  its  army  of  miners.  It  was  the  victory  of 
Tarapaca  over  Central  Chili.  Until  a  coast  railway 
providing  rapid  means  for  transporting  an  army  is 
built  from  Valparaiso  to  Iquique  no  future  government 
in  Santiago  will  be  secure  against  insurrection  in  the 
North. 

The  Chilian  flag,  as  it  floats  above  the  high  rock 
which  guards  the  entrance  of  Arica,  is  a  signal  that  the 
frontier  has  been  established  north  of  the  nitrate  desert 
for  all  time.  The  little  Peruvian  fort  which  was 
captured  after  Tarapacd  had  been  overrun  and  Tacna 
occupied  with  a  land  force  is  still  garrisoned,  and  the 
guns  point  outward  toward  the  sea,  where  the  Chilians 
are  as  aggressive  in  commerce  to-day  as  they  were  then 
in  naval  warfare.  This  is  the  last  port  on  the  coast 
where  the  flag  is  seen;  and  nominally  it  is  temporarily 
occupied  pending  a  popular  vote  in  1893,  which  will 
determine  whether  Tacna  and  Arica  shall  be  restored  to 
Peru  or  annexed  permanently  to  Chili.      The  sum  of 


178  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

$10,000,000  in  silver  is  to  be  paid  by  the  nation  which 
finally  obtains  the  provinces  to  the  loser.  Arica  will 
be  held  by  Chili  whether  the  price  be  paid  or  not.  Ten 
years  of  occupation  with  the  military  garrisons  strength- 
ened at  the  time  of  the  election  will  secure  a  vote  in 
its  favor.  As  in  Iquique,  so  also  in  Arica,  the  Peruvian 
residents  are  gradually  selling  their  possessions,  and 
Chilians  are  taking  their  places.  Moreover,  an  increase 
in  trade  is  shown  by  the  number  of  vessels  constantly 
to  be  seen  in  the  roadstead,  and  there  is  a  band  always 
playing  in  the  plaza  in  the  evenings  to  amuse  the 
people.  Arica,  while  not  making  as  rapid  strides  in 
material  advancement  as  the  chief  nitrate  ports,  Pisagua 
and  Iquique,  is  steadily  gaining  ground.  The  Chilian 
flag  will  remain  over  the  mimic  fortress  after  the  de- 
cisive election.  The  South  will  fisfht  a  second  time 
rather  than  lose  the  frontier  provinces.  Chili  will  not 
give  up  any  territory  which  has  been  conquered.  Its 
loss  would  also  be  civilization's  loss,  for  it  is  the  most 
capable  and  progressive  nation  in  the  South. 

From  Arica,  where  there  is  a  sharp  turn  in  the  trend 
of  the  west  coast,  there  is  a  marked  change  in  the  scen- 
ery. The  high-terraced  seawall  of  Northern  Chili  gives 
place  in  Southern  Peru  to  sandy  barrens  and  low-lying 
cliffs,  with  gray  mountains  sloping  easily  toward  the 
shore.  It  is  a  bleak,  inhospitable  coast,  the  wider  pros- 
pects which  it  brings  before  the  eye  being  vistas  of 
desert,  with  here  and  there  a  river  bottom  of  rank  weeds 
and  a  languishing  village.  Such  a  landing-place  is 
MoUendo,  with  a  straggling  group  of  adobe  cabins.  A 
splendid  destiny  was  marked  out  for  it  by  Mr.  Meiggs, 
but  it  has  not  entered  upon  its  promised  estate.  Its 
prominence  as  the  coast  base  of  the  longest  railway  in 


THE   RAINLESS   COAST  179 

Peru  secured  for  it  during  the  war  of  invasion  an  early 
visitation  from  Chilian  marauding  troops,  and  wanton 
destruction  of  engineering  works  and  rolling-stock. 
General  Caceres,  afterwards  President  of  Peru,  was  in 
the  interior  above  Arequipa  for  a  long  time  resisting 
the  terms  of  tlie  ignominious  peace  which  General 
Iglesias  had  negotiated.  This  district  was  almost  the 
last  to  be  pacified,  and  the  railway  was  not  reopened 
for  a  long  period.  This  line  illustrated  at  once  Mr. 
Meiggs's  genius  and  folly.  It  was  a  magnificent  engi- 
neering work  which  demonstrated  in  advance  the  prac- 
ticability of  the  Alpine  railways  and  tunnels.  It  was  a 
barren  business  enterprise,  since  it  began  at  a  coast  vil- 
lage where  there  was  no  harbor,  and  ended  327  miles 
away  in  a  lake  settlement  of  possibly  5000  Indians. 
The  railway  system  was  built  at  a  contract  price  of 
$44,000,000  in  bonds.  An  attempt  was  made  to  open 
a  trade  route  with  Bolivia  by  establishing  a  line  of 
steamers  on  Lake  Titicaca  at  a  level  of  12,500  feet 
above  the  sea ;  but  it  has  yielded  barren  returns  owing 
to  the  lack  of  rapid  communication  between  the  end  of 
the  lake  and  La  Paz.  Mr.  Meiggs  designed  a  third 
railway  between  Juliaca,  near  Puno,  and  Cuzco,  a  dis- 
tance of  272  miles.  Only  a  small  section  of  this  line 
has  been  completed.  The  southern  railway  system  does 
not  tap  any  great  producing  districts.  It  runs  through 
a  sparsely  populated  country,  offering  no  facilities  for 
developing  a  remunerative  transportation  trade. 

From  Southern  Peru,  after  a  voyage  of  three  days,  I 
reached  Callao.  This  town  was  once  the  centre  of  the 
trade  of  the  West  Coast.  The  Pacific  Navigation  Com- 
pany made  it  the  headquarters  of  their  fleet  of  steamers, 
establishing  there  extensive  repair  shops,  foundries,  and 


180  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

depots  of  supplies,  and  employing  a  force  of  200  English 
mechanics,  for  whom  houses,  a  hospital,  and  even  a 
theatre  were  built.  It  is  an  unerring  sign  of  the  com- 
mercial decadence  of  Callao  that  the  Company  are 
transferring  their  machine  shops  from  the  Peruvian  to 
the  Chilian  coast.  The  commerce  and  population *of  the 
town  have  steadily  declined  since  the  collapse  of  the 
guano  business.  Callao  has  ceased  to  be  a  terminal 
point  of  the  first  importance  for  European  commerce. 
Its  population  was  once  40,000 ;  it  can  now  hardly  exceed 
25,000.  There  is  an  exceptionally  good  harbor  for  the 
coast,  and  it  has  been  deepened  and  improved  by  a  French 
company.  There  are  moles  where  vessels  can  receive 
cargoes ;  there  is  a  large  floating  dock  ;  there  is  a  sea- 
wall nearly  a  mile  long  of  substantial  construction ; 
there  are  steam  cranes  for  loading  and  discharging  car- 
goes and  railway  tracks  leading  nearly  to  the  ends  of 
the  piers  ;  and  there  is  anchorage  ground  for  the  largest 
ships.  Facilities  are  provided  for  handling  an  immense 
commerce.  There  are  all  the  mechanical  appliances 
and  engineering  works  required  for  making  Callao 
a  metropolis.  Business  alone  is  lacking.  On  the 
rainless  coast  one  constantly  sees  dry  river-beds  where 
there  are  fine  channels  for  running  water  and  sharp 
curves  and  rugged  gorges  in  the  coast  mountains  offer- 
ing a  promise  of  bold  scenery.  Only  one  thing  is 
wanting  —  water.  At  Callao  there  are  channels  hol- 
lowed out  and  scientifically  improved  for  floating  a 
great  commerce ;  but  there  seems  to  be  no  business. 
The  town  is  staffnant.  All  its  commercial  and  Indus- 
trial  interests  are  depressed. 

The  chief  cause  for  the  commercial  decadence  of  Cal- 
lao is  the  exhaustion  of  the  resources  of  the  country 


THE   RAINLESS    COAST  181 

produced  by  the  war  with  Chili.  Peru  was  completely 
crushed.  Its  seaboard  had  been  ravaged ;  many  of  its 
towns  were  heaps  of  charred  ruins ;  and  its  capital  was 
only  saved  from  destruction  by  the  energy  of  the  for- 
eign residents.  The  government  was  bankrupt.  For 
years  it  had  been  dependent  upon  the  guano  beds  for 
revenues,  and  these  sources  of  wealth  had  passed  out 
of  its  possession.  It  was  compelled  by  its  necessities  to 
continue  the  issue  of  irredeemable  currency,  which  was 
already  worth  only  a  fraction  of  its  face  value.  It  went 
on  inflating  the  currency  until  there  was  a  volume 
variously  estimated  from  80,000,000  to  100,000,000, 
and  an  actual  value  of  a  few  cents  on  the  dollar.  With 
such  a  medium  of  exchange  business  operations  could 
not  be  extended.  It  was  not  till  the  currency  became 
worthless  and  was  cast  aside  with  one  consent  by  the 
people  in  the  coast  towns  that  there  was  any  real 
improvement  in  the  situation.  Momentarily,  the  repu- 
diation of  the  currency  involved  great  distress  in  the 
interior,  where  the  natives  had  no  money  with  which  to 
buy  food ;  but  the  substitution  of  silver  for  paper  was 
rapidly  effected,  and  from  that  time  there  has  been  a 
partial  restoration  of  business  confidence.  The  unfin- 
ished railway  system  has  been  one  of  the  chief  obstacles 
to  material  progress.  Lack  of  capital  available  for  new 
enterprises  has  been  another  hindrance.  Peru  had 
stopped  paying  the  interest  on  its  public  debt,  and 
thereby  had  fatally  impaired  its  credit.  Its  most  urgent 
need  was  foreign  capital,  but  its  borrowing  powers  had 
completely  collapsed. 

Callao  is  the  seaboard  base  of  the  second  of  Mr. 
Meiggs's  great  railways.  I  went  over  the  line  to  the  ter- 
minus after  enjoying  for  ten  days  the  delightful  society 


182  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

of  the  capital.  The  secrets  of  the  Andes  cannot  be 
snatched  in  a  game  of  blindman's-buff  on  a  railway- 
train.  The  traveller  who  goes  to  Chicla  with  an  im- 
pression that  he  can  see  grand  mountain  scenery  by 
shifting  his  seat  from  one  side  of  the  car  to  the  other, 
and  by  occasionally  venturing  outside  on  the  platform, 
is  doomed  to  disappointment.  Mr.  Hubbell,  superin- 
tendent of  the  railway,  to  whom  I  had  been  introduced 
through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Eyre,  in  Lima,  had  promised 
that  I  should  return  by  hand-car  without  a  cinder-puff- 
ing engine  in  front.  I  waited  until  there  was  a  clear  sky 
above  me,  and  then  saw  the  Oroya  railway.  Mr.  Ellis, 
the  roadmaster,  sent  for  me  at  eleven  o'clock  and  told 
me  that  the  carriage  was  waiting.  It  was  a  narrow  box 
with  two  seats  over  four  wheels.  A  brake  worked  by  a 
small  hand-lever  was  the  only  appliance  for  controlling 
it.  This  sufficed  for  stopping  the  hand-car  in  the  course 
of  a  few  yards,  even  when  the  motion  was  as  high  as 
thirty  miles  an  hour.  Six  passengers  with  the  road- 
master  made  a  full  load,  but  gravity  is  a  steed  which  is 
at  its  best  when  it  has  something  to  pull.  The  wheels 
were  oiled  and  critically  examined;  the  baggage  was 
readjusted  so  as  to  inconvenience  the  passengers  as 
little  as  possible ;  and  then  the  grip  of  the  brake  was 
released.  In  an  instant  the  car  was  in  rapid  motion 
down  the  Cordilleras  from  an  elevation  of  12,220  feet. 
In  a  few  minutes  more  it  was  running  at  the  rate  of 
twenty  miles  an  hour,  and  if  Mr.  Ellis  had  been  anxious 
to  put  his  pony  through  its  best  paces,  a  speed  of  thirty- 
five  miles  might  have  been  attained  on  the  safer  levels. 
The  simplicity  of  the  engineering  methods  of  this 
railway  was  now  revealed.  Projecting  terraces  or  but- 
tresses along  the  valley  of  the  Rimac  have  been  utilized 


THE   RAINLESS   COAST  183 

for  the  construction  of  a  series  of  ascending  zigzags. 
There  are  no  spiral  curves  above  Matucana,  but  there  is 
a  continuous  succession  of  grades  one  above  another. 
The  roadmaster  jumps  off,  readjusts  a  switch,  and  then 
starts  the  car  in  the  opposite  direction.  The  Rimac, 
which  before  was  a  foaming  torrent  a  long  way  below 
us,  is  now  almost  on  a  level  with  the  car.  The  tunnel 
through  which  we  passed  recedes  from  view  and  at  last 
disappears  altogether.  The  roadmaster  again  alights  to 
switch  the  car  upon  a  third  grade.  Now  the  first  direc- 
tion is  resumed,  and  before  long  the  tunnel  through 
which  we  had  plunged  on  the  first  grade  is  again  seen, 
this  time  high  above  us.  As  one  looks  down  another 
tunnel  can  be  descried  at  a  lower  level.  This  will  be 
reached  by  a  backward  run  on  an  intermediate  grade, 
and  then  by  an  advance  in  the  opposite  direction.  The 
lines  of  ascent  and  descent  are  distinctly  traced  as  we 
pass  from  one  level  to  another.  There  is  one  mountain 
mass  which  is  approached  as  many  as  five  times  on  suc- 
cessive grades,  and  then  a  tunnel  pierces  it,  and  sends 
the  car  trundling  down  the  precipices  on  the  other  side. 
From  Chicla  to  Rio  Blanco,  with  its  reaches  of  white 
water,  there  is  a  descent  of  677  feet  in  three  and  one- 
half  miles ;  and  thence  to  Puente  de  Anchi  there  is  one 
of  243  feet  in  two  miles.  The  gradients  are  uniform 
from  the  base  of  the  Cordilleras,  and  in  no  instance  do 
they  exceed  one  in  twenty-six,  the  average  being  con- 
siderably lower.  The  Rimac  and  other  streams  are 
crossed  and  recrossed  by  bridges  and  viaducts  of  slender 
construction  and  ingenious  design.  At  Puente  Infier- 
nillo  there  are  double  tunnels,  with  the  river  pouring  out 
of  a  subterranean  cleft,  and  the  mountains  towering  in 
desolate  majesty  to  a  great  height.     A  bridge  spans  a 


184  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

torrent  at  the  bottom  of  the  ravme.  On  the  mountain 
sides,  which  are  here  nearly  vertical,  there  are  evidences 
of  the  stupendous  forces  by  which  nature  has  hollowed 
out  this  infernal  chamber  in  the  Cordilleras.  Rock 
masses  have  been  riven  apart  and  shattered.  The  foam- 
ino-  torrent  has  undermined  the  base  of  the  mountain. 
A  chasm  which  seemed  to  defy  human  approach  has 
been  walled  in  on  every  side  by  precipitous  buttresses ; 
yet  at  the  bottom  of  the  ravine  trains  pass  over  a  light 
railway  bridge,  and  appear  and  disappear  at  the  mouths 
of  companion  tunnels.  From  Puente  de  Anchi  to  San 
Mateo  the  railway  follows  a  winding  pathway  along  the 
verges  of  precipices.  Tunnels  are  frequent  and  viaducts 
seem  to  be  suspended  like  cobwebs  in  the  air.  At  San 
Mateo  there  are  magnificent  mountain  prospects  at  an 
elevation  of  10,530  feet.  In  fourteen  and  one-half  miles 
there  is  a  descent  of  2742  feet  by  a  series  of  long  curves 
and  zigzags.  Below  Matucana  there  are  two  complete 
spirals  by  which  the  car  successively  reaches  points 
directly  below  each  other.  Here  was  the  object  lesson 
by  which  railway  engineers  profited  in  constructing  the 
St.  Gothard  and  other  Alpine  lines. 

At  Verrugas  the  hand-car  was  switched  off  on  a 
siding  and  abandoned.  The  brook  at  the  bottom  of  the 
ravine  is  ordinarily  a  thin,  silvery  stream ;  but  when 
a  cloudburst  occurred  a  year  before,  the  gorge,  with  its 
precipitous  walls,  was  suddenly  converted  into  a  high 
flood,  which  swept  down  upon  the  bridge,  the  most 
conspicuous  work  of  engineering  on  the  line  so  far  as 
it  is  completed.  The  bridge  had  three  iron  piers,  the 
central  one  being  252  feet  high,  with  the  span  of  the 
chasm,  580  feet  in  width.  The  torrent  carried  away 
the  middle  pier  and  with  it  a  mass  of  wreckage.     For 


THE  EAINLESS   COAST  185 

several  months  traffic  was  suspended  beyond  Verrugas, 
and  mules  were  put  on  the  road  to  Chicla.  Then  Yan- 
kee ingenuity  devised  a  method  of  surmounting  the 
obstacle  of  the  broken  bridge.  Cables  were  swung 
across  the  chasm,  and  a  small  car  working  on  pulleys 
was  attached  to  them.  As  our  party  of  seven  approached 
the  side  pier  a  hanging  platform,  with  two  braces 
hooked  to  the  pulleys,  was  in  use  for  transferring 
freight  from  one  bank  to  the  other.  There  was  no 
time  for  substituting  the  regular  passenger  box  for  this 
rough  contrivance.  We  scrambled  up,  and  were  swung 
across  the  chasm,  the  hanging  platform  tilting  with  the 
load.  The  most  serious  traveller  of  the  party  could 
not  help  smiling  over  the  drollery  of  this  swinging  ride 
over  a  dangerous  gorge,  and  every  one  breathed  more 
easily  when  the  wheels  ceased  to  move  and  the  open 
cage  could  be  emj^tied.  A  second  hand-car  was  then 
taken,  and  the  journey  down  the  mountains  was  con- 
tinued to  San  Bartholom^,  and  thence  to  Chosica. 
Lima  was  then  only  twenty-five  miles  distant. 

Mr.  Meiggs  had  an  ambition  to  leave  behind  him 
some  magnificent  work  achieved  under  stupendous  dif- 
ficulties. The  Oroya  Railroad  is  his  title  to  fame  writ- 
ten in  spiral  curves  and  zigzags  across  the  Cordilleras. 
It  was  undertaken  as  a  marvel  of  modern  engineering, 
by  which  Peru  might  be  brought  into  a  conspicuous 
place  among  the  nations,  and  its  reputation  as  the  most 
backward  and  mediaeval  of  South  American  countries 
redeemed.  Even  in  its  unfinished  state,  it  is  a  monu- 
ment to  his  genius  and  the  most  important  public  work 
in  Peru.  As  originally  planned  in  1870,  it  was  to 
tunnel  the  Andes  at  an  altitude  of  15,645  feet  above  the 
sea,  after  a  long  series  of  zigzags  and  curves  on  the 


186  TEOPICAL   AMERICA 

terraces  of  the  upper  Rimac.  No  other  engineer  would 
have  ventured  to  forecast  the  operation  of  a  piston-rod 
at  so  great  a  height.  No  other  contractor  would  have 
seriously  considered  the  practicability  of  building  a 
railway  across  the  mountains  to  a  few  huddles  of  Indian 
cabins  and  obtaining  remunerative  financial  returns 
from  it.  There  were  other  points  in  central  Peru,  at 
which  the  Cordilleras  could  have  been  pierced  at  a 
greatly  reduced  level,  and  with  less  formidable  engineer- 
ing difficulties.  Mr.  Meiggs,  in  his  way,  was  as  auto- 
cratic as  the  Russian  Czar,  who  upset  the  careful 
calculations  of  his  engineers  by  drawing  a  straight  line 
across  the  map  and  ordering  them  to  take  that  as  their 
route.  Oroya  seems  to  have  been  chosen  as  the  ter- 
minus of  the  greatest  of  the  Peruvian  railways  for  no 
apparent  reason  except  Mr.  Meiggs's  imperious  caprice. 
It  is  possible  that  Mr.  Meiggs,  in  planning  his  moun- 
tain and  coast  railways,  was  swayed  by  emulation  of 
the  achievements  of  the  Inca  engineers  before  the 
Spanish  conquest.  They  built  the  most  ingenious  roads 
over  the  Cordilleras,  the  remains  of  which  are  still  to 
be  seen,  and  they  spanned  the  widest  rivers  with  rope 
bridges.  The  Inca  Empire,  at  the  height  of  its  power, 
extended  from  the  equator  to  what  is  now  central 
Chili.  In  order  to  facilitate  the  march  of  armies,  and 
the  development  of  native  industries,  the  conquering 
race  built  highways  in  the  mountain  plateaus  inland, 
from  Quito  to  Cuzco  and  Titicaca,  and  thence  into 
Bolivia.  With  equal  skill  works  of  irrigation,  by  which 
the  coast  valleys  of  Peru  were  kept  under  a  high  state 
of  cultivation,  were  devised,  and  so  well  built  that 
portions  of  them  are  in  use  to-day  in  the  vineyards  and 
cotton  plantations  of  Peru.     The  Incas  were  the  great- 


THE   RAINLESS   COAST  187 

est  and  most  practical  road-makers  of  antiquity.  They 
did  not  construct  their  public  works  where  there  was 
no  traffic,  but  where  highways  were  needed  in  order 
to  connect  the  centres  of  their  wonderful  civilization. 
Where  irrigation  was  of  more  importance  than  a  road- 
way they  built  dams  at  successive  elevations  of  moun- 
tain streams,  and  reservoirs  for  the  storage  of  water; 
and  lower  down  they  trenched  the  gorges  of  the  sierras 
and  dug  long  canals  in  the  valleys.  Mr.  Meiggs  and 
his  associates  were  less  practical  in  their  methods  than 
the  Incas.  One-half  of  the  money  expended  on  rail- 
ways, if  it  had  been  applied  to  irrigation  works,  would 
have  transformed  a  barren  coast  into  fertile  plantations 
and  blooming  gardens.  With  practical  wisdom  in  locat- 
ing the  railway  routes,  the  trade  of  Peru  might  have 
been  concentrated  in  two  or  three  ports,  instead  of 
being  scattered  among  twenty  fishing  villages,  and  the 
premature  building  of  costly  mountain  railways  which 
have  no  terminal  points  except  insignificant  Indian 
settlements  would  have  been  avoided  altogether. 

These  costly  works  were  undertaken  under  the  stim- 
ulative effect  of  the  guano  speculations  upon  which  the 
government  had  entered.  The  national  revenues  had 
been  largely  increased  and  reckless  expenditures  were 
incurred  under  the  impression  that  the  coast  manures 
and  salts  would  prove  inexhaustible  sources  of  wealth. 
Mr.  Meiggs  was  the  evil  genius  of  Peru  during  the 
period  when  borrowing  was  easy.  His  own  contracts 
amounted  to  8133,000,000,  and  his  premature  death  left 
all  his  enterprises  in  inextricable  confusion.  The  State, 
after  investing  $140,000,000  in  railways,  during  an  in- 
credibly short  period,  was  overwhelmed  with  war  and 
financial   embarrassment.     The   bondholders,   after   re- 


188  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

ceiving  no  interest  for  fourteen  years,  have  finally 
been  placed  in  possession  of  the  unfinished  railways. 
The  national  debt  has  been  paid  by  the  surrender  of 
all  the  State  railways  to  the  English  creditors. 

Peru  is  to-day  in  liquidation.  Devastated  by  war, 
despoiled  of  territories  and  the  treasure  of  its  rainless 
coast,  bankrupt  in  resources,  crushed,  prostrate,  and 
despairing,  it  has  been  restored  by  the  efforts  of  one 
man  to  life  and  hope.  At  the  close  of  the  disastrous 
campaign  with  Chili,  its  towns  were  in  ruins,  its  rail- 
ways were  wellnigh  destroyed,  and  its  industries  were 
paralyzed.  The  country  was  racked  with  political 
feuds  and  rent  with  civil  war.  Each  new  government 
created  by  revolution  or  military  cabal  was  powerless 
to  restore  financial  stability.  Railways  were  arbitrarily 
seized  in  defiance  of  vested  rights.  There  was  not  a 
financier,  either  in  Europe  or  in  America,  so  credulous 
as  to  lend  money  to  Peru  on  any  terms.  Without  the 
aid  of  large  masses  of  foreign  capital,  the  industries  of 
the  country  seemed  destined  to  languish  for  an  indefi- 
nite period.  Under  deplorable  conditions  of  national 
bankruptcy  and  commercial  depression,  the  future  of 
Peru  seemed  hopeless.  But  there  was  one  man  who 
did  not  cease  to  hope,  even  when  every  one  else 
despaired.  For  five  years  he  was  swayed  by  the 
honorable  ambition  of  rescuing  the  country  from  its 
calamitous  condition  by  a  master-stroke  of  finance  and 
diplomacy.  Baffled  many  times  by  the  fierce  resent- 
ments created  by  the  war  between  Chili  and  Peru,  and 
constantly  embarrassed  by  counter-intrigues  from  rival 
groups  of  financiers  which  had  support  from  political 
factions,  he  persevered  in  his  undertaking  with  inex- 
haustible reserves  of  patience  and  courage  until  success 


THE   RAINLESS   COAST  189 

crowned  his  efforts.  The  entire  foreign  debt,  amount- 
ing in  interest  and  principal  to  1295,000,000,  was  liqui- 
dated by  a  contract  sanctioned  by  the  legislative  cham- 
bers. The  bondholders,  in  return  for  this  discharge  of 
indebtedness,  have  received  ten  State  railways,  with  the 
privilege  of  operating  them  for  sixty-six  years,  and  the 
obliofation  to  extend  them  323  kilometers  during  six 
years.  They  have  also  obtained  control  of  important 
mining  properties,  and  a  monopoly  of  the  guano  busi- 
ness in  Chili  and  Peru  for  four  years,  and  a  large  share 
in  the  working  of  the  best  beds  for  a  longer  period. 
They  are  armed  with  many  other  concessions  and  privi- 
leges, which  are  expected  to  yield  them  an  immediate 
income  and  large  prospective  profits.  The  transaction 
is  one  of  tremendous  magnitude,  and  has  established 
the  reputation  of  Michael  P.  Grace  as  a  financier. 

It  Avas  in  1885  that  Mr.  Grace  became  possessed  with 
the  idea  that  a  financial  settlement  could  be  effected  by 
which  Peruvian  credit  and  prosperity  might  be  reestab- 
lished on  a  permanent  basis,  and  the  interests  of  foreign 
capitalists  protected  and  rendered  productive.  He  was 
convinced  that  the  opposition  of  Chili,  which  had  proved 
fatal  to  the  previous  agreements,  could  be  counteracted. 
He  returned  to  London,  became  associated  with  Lord 
Donoughmore,  one  of  the  leading  bondholders,  and 
received  full  power  of  attorney  to  represent  them  in 
negotiations  at  Santiago  and  Lima.  The  jealousies  and 
resentments  of  the  two  nations  operated  in  opposite 
directions.  Chili  was  unwilling  to  make  any  conces- 
sions to  the  bondholders,  or  to  enter  into  any  dealings 
with  them,  but  insisted  upon  treating  with  Peru  on  the 
basis  of  the  Treaty  of  Ancon.  Peru  desired  to  negoti- 
ate directly  with  the  bondholders,  and  to  have  nothing 


190  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

to  do  with  Chili.  Fine  diplomatic  work  was  required 
in  order  to  effect  the  general  result  of  settling  the 
guano  claims  against  Chili,  putting  Peru  into  liquida- 
tion, and  transferring  its  railways  and  other  property  to 
the  bondholders.  The  settlement  was  brought  about 
toward  the  close  of  1889,  in  the  form  of  a  protocol  dis- 
posing of  various  questions  left  open  in  the  Treaty  of 
Ancon.  Chili  persisted  to  the  end  in  refusing  to  recog- 
nize the  bondholders,  but  virtually  made  concessions  to 
them,  while  assuming  the  attitude  of  befriending  Peru, 
and  of  enabling  it  to  reorganize  its  shattered  finances. 

These  concessions  cleared  the  ground  for  final  action 
upon  the  new  contract  which  Lord  Donoughmore  mean- 
while had  been  pressing  upon  the  attention  of  the 
government  of  Peru.  President  Caceres  advocated  its 
acceptance ;  but  three  successive  Congresses  rejected  it. 
Then  followed  a  characteristic  episode  in  South  Ameri- 
can politics.  A  number  of  elections  Avere  invalidated, 
the  seats  of  the  members  were  declared  vacant,  and 
special  elections  were  ordered  and  carried  by  the  gov- 
ernment. With  the  help  of  the  new  members  the  con- 
tract was  ratified  on  October  7,  1889.  The  President 
signed  the  act,  which  was  officially  promulgated  on 
January  11,  1890.  By  the  terms  of  the  Grace  contract 
Peru  is  absolutely  released  from  all  responsibility  for 
the  loans  of  1869,  1870,  and  1872.  This  debt  was  in- 
curred in  the  construction  of  railways,  and  the  bulk  of 
it  was  secured  by  the  guano  deposits  which  have  been 
in  the  possession  of  Chili.  The  total  debt,  in  round 
numbers,  was  $160,000,000,  on  which  no  interest  had 
been  paid  since  1876.  This  was  exclusive  of  |100,- 
000,000,  of  irredeemable  paper  currency,  which  had 
virtually   been   repudiated.      The    arrears    of    interest 


THE   RAINLESS   COAST  191 

amounted  at  the  time  of  the  settlement  to  $135,000,- 
000,  making  the  aggregate  indebtedness,  principal  and 
interest,  $295,000,000.  This  has  been  wiped  out  by  the 
contract.  Peru,  unable  to  pay  its  public  debt,  sur- 
rendered the  railways  which  were  built  with  the  loans 
of  1870  and  1872.  Its  government  has  practically  said 
to  the  bondholders :  "  Take  the  railways,  operate  them 
and  complete  them,  so  as  to  render  them  profitable ; 
and  take  also  Peru's  claims  against  Chili  for  the  guano 
and  nitrate  beds  mortgaged  to  you.  Cancel  the  debt 
when  we  have  given  up  to  you  everything  we  have. 
Bring  new  capital  and  enterprise  into  the  country,  and 
enable  us  to  live  and  prosper." 

The  bondholders  under  the  contract  acquire  posses- 
sion of  764  miles  of  railway  in  actual  operation,  and 
are  required  to  extend  the  southern  system  51  miles 
to  Sicuani  within  four  years,  and  the  central  system 
49  miles,  from  Chicla  to  Oroya,  within  three  years, 
and,  in  addition,  to  build  within  six  years  100  miles  of 
new  road,  either  on  the  coast  lines  or  in  connection 
with  the  two  main  systems.  These  extensions  are  com- 
pulsory under  penalty  of  fines  and  forfeiture  of  certain 
lines ;  but  the  bondholders  are  at  liberty  to  build  as 
many  additional  sections  as  they  choose.  Even  with 
these  extensions,  the  railway  system  will  hardly  be 
more  than  half  finished,  and  the  richest  mineral  and 
agricultural  regions  will  remain  without  direct  com- 
munications with  the  coast.  Oroya  is  an  insignificant 
terminal  point,  and  the  central  line  can  never  be  con- 
sidered completed  until  direct  connections  are  made 
with  Cerro  de  Pasco  in  the  north  and  with  the  naviga- 
ble waters  of  the  Amazon  in  the  east.  Marangani  is  a 
huddle  of  Indian  huts,  and  Sicuani  hardly  more  than 


192  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

an  Inca  village  market ;  and  Cuzco  will  still  remain 
isolated  when  the  proposed  extensions  are  made.  Since 
the  signing  of  the  contract,  concessions  have  been 
granted  by  the  Peruvian  government  of  the  right  to 
connect  the  southern  railway  system  at  Puno  with  the 
frontiers  of  Bolivia,  and,  also,  the  central  railway  sys- 
tem, when  completed,  with  the  navigable  waters  of  the 
Amazon,  with  an  additional  land  grant  of  15,000  acres 
for  every  kilometer  of  railway  built.  A  supplementary 
concession  of  5,000,000  acres  of  land  has  also  been 
sanctioned.  The  transfer  of  the  famous  Cerro  de 
Pasco  silver  mines  has  been  arranged  for  the  benefit  of 
the  bondholders.  Negotiations  have  been  successfully 
conducted  for  concessions  from  the  Bolivian  govern- 
ment for  a  railway  to  be  built  in  connection  with  the 
southern  railway  system,  with  land  grants  and  subsi- 
dies. The  government  arms  the  bondholders  with  all 
the  guano  privileges  obtained  by  the  Chilian  protocol. 

These  are  the  main  outlines  of  this  liquidation 
scheme.  That  Mr.  Grace  and  the  bondholders,  many 
of  whom  have  purchased  heavily  depreciated  securities, 
will  enrich  themselves,  is  probable.  That  they  will  also 
succeed,  if  not  embarrassed  by  revolutionary  intrigues, 
in  rescuing  Peru  from  its  deplorable  plight  is  credible. 
That  English  interests  will  be  promoted  at  an  ultimate 
sacrifice  of  American  interests  by  this  compromise  is 
certain.  The  railways  of  Peru  have  been  managed 
largely  by  Americans.  These  lines  will  henceforth  be 
controlled  by  the  English  bondholders.  According  to 
the  contract,  the  companies  to  be  organized  for  carrying 
out  the  compromise,  and  for  extending  the  railways  and 
developing  the  mineral  resources  and  guano  deposits 
are  to  be  English.     There  must  be,  in  the  natural  order 


THE   RAINLESS   COAST  193 

of  events,  a  decline  of  American  interests  in  Peru. 
Mr.  Meiggs  and  his  associates  created  American  pres- 
tige in  Peru,  but  it  was  on  the  strength  of  capital  bor- 
rowed in  England.  In  the  future  Peru  will  inevitably 
rank  with  Brazil,  Chili,  and  the  Argentine  among  the 
commercial  dependencies  in  England.  The  industrial 
revival  of  Peru  was  confidently  predicted  by  all  influen- 
tial men  in  Lima.  Mr.  Elmore,  who  had  been  Peruvian 
Minister  at  Washington,  and  was  soon  to  be  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  remarked  to  me  that  only  two  men  at 
all  eminent  in  public  life  had  expressed  disapproval  of 
the  compromise  with  the  bondholders.  When  foreign 
capital  is  supplied  for  the  development  of  the  mining 
and  agricultural  belts,  and  employment  is  found  for 
thousands  of  workmen  in  the  extension  of  the  rail- 
ways, it  seems  reasonable  to  infer  that  the  energies  of 
the  country  will  be  revived,  and  that  with  an  increase 
in  prosperity  the  volume  of  the  export  and  import 
trades  will  be  restored.  The  United  States  will  profit 
indirectly  rather  than  directly  from  the  bondholders' 
compromise.  Prosperity  in  Peru  will  create  a  market 
there  in  which  Americans  can  compete  successfully 
with  Europe  if  they  will  display  maritime  and  mer- 
cantile energy. 


LIMA   IN   CARNIVAL   WEEK 

A    SATURNALIA    OF     PRACTICAL    JOKING  —  BEAUTY    OF  THE 

WOMEN A    SHABBY    BUT    DELIGHTFUL    CITY PAST  AND 

PRESENT      IN      THE      RIMAC     VALLEY  —  MIRAFLORES  AND 
CHORILLOS 

FoK  three  days  after  my  arrival  at  Callao  the  floods 
clapped  their  hands  along  a  rainless  coast.  Without  a 
cloud  in  the  sky  water  descended  by  the  bucketful  on 
the  heads  of  unwary  pedestrians,  and  shouts  of  merri 
ment  were  raised  from  roof  and  balcony  where  mischief- 
workers  were  entrenched.  The  revels  of  carnival  week 
involve  prodigal  wastefulness  in  the  use  of  water. 
Nature  by  withholding  rain  enforces  all  the  year  round 
lessons  of  restraint  and  economy.  During  the  carnival 
there  is  a  revolt  against  Nature  and  her  wholesome 
discipline.  Water  is  showered  from  the  housetops  with 
wanton  extravagance.  All  classes  join  in  the  frolic. 
Practical  joking  is  licensed,  and  business  is  practically 
suspended  for  three  days.  Social  barriers  are  thrown 
down,  and  a  spirit  of  democratic  equality  pervades  the 
community.  The  chambermaid  upsets  a  pitcher  of 
water  upon  the  head  of  the  prosperous  merchant  as  he 
leaves  his  house  at  the  next  door.  The  merchant's 
daughter  plays  a  similar  prank  upon  the  beggar  asking 
for  alms  in  the  street. 

When  I  arrived  at  Callao  there  was  not  a  street  where 
194 


LIMA   IN   CARNIVAL   WEEK  195 

one  was  secure  against  attack  from  doorway,  balcony,  or 
roof.  At  Lima  after  crossing  the  Cathedral  Plaza,  two 
travelling  companions,  who  were  walking  with  me  to  the 
French  and  English  hotel,  were  subjected  to  a  shower 
bath.  This  was  at  noon  of  the  third  day.  As  the  after- 
noon passed  the  sport  increased  in  intensity,  and  every 
successful  delivery  from  bucket  or  dipper  was  greeted 
with  shouts  of  laughter.  The  servants  in  the  hotel, 
men  and  women,  at  first  had  a  general  engagement  in 
the  inner  courts  and  galleries,  from  which  after  much 
scufHing,  scampering,  and  horseplay,  they  emerged  wet 
to  the  skin,  powdered  with  flour,  and  wildly  hilarious. 
They  then  stationed  themselves  upon  the  roof,  and  for 
hours  not  a  carriage,  nor  a  mule-driver,  nor  a  pedestrian 
went  by  without  being  saluted  in  the  approved  carnival 
style.  The  street  was  wet  from  sidewalk  to  sidewalk, 
and  everybody  was  warned  of  the  danger  with  which  he 
was  menaced;  but  few  seemed  disposed  to  turn  into  a 
safer  quarter,  and  to  avoid  assault  from  the  garrison  of 
water-throwers.  Horses  were  whipped  up,  and  men  and 
boys  ran  briskly  by,  dodging  the  showers  when  they 
could,  and  the  victims  when  drenched  laughed  as 
heartily  over  their  misfortunes  as  the  bystanders  under 
cover  of  the  besiegers  aloft.  I  saw  hundreds  of  men 
and  women  showered  in  this  way  during  the  day ;  but  in 
no  instance  were  there  signs  of  resentment  or  anger. 
Dipper,  pail,  and  pitcher,  however,  are  coarse  and 
clumsy  weapons  of  the  mimic  warfare  of  the  carnival. 
There  are  more  refined  instruments  of  torture  known  as 
chisguetes.  These  are  toys  by  which  jets  of  water  or 
p^rfame  can  be  thrown  directly  into  the  eyes  of  an  an- 
tagonist. Roughly  dressed  men,  sauntering  through  the 
plaza,  felt  at  liberty  to  open  their  batteries  upon  any  one 


196  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

passing  by.  There  would  be  a  quick  movement  of  the 
assailant's  hand,  and  a  stream  of  water,  often  colored 
with  pigment,  would  be  discharged  directly  into  the  vic- 
tim's face.  Ladies  were  attacked  in  this  way  and  they 
only  smiled  grimly.  King  Carnival  reigned.  His  sub- 
jects were  on  terms  of  equality.  With  the  Lenten 
strains  in  the  churches  social  distinctions  would  be  re- 
stored. Meanwhile  there  was  a  saturnalia  of  practical 
joking. 

The"  prosperous  classes  and  foreigners  seemed  to  enjoy 
heartily  the  social  relaxation  of  the  Peruvian  carnival. 
The  romping  extended  to  circles  where  etiquette  and 
conventional  propriety  were  ordinarily  most  exacting. 
Men  and  women  in  private  houses  engaged  in  pitched 
battles  with  water-jugs  and  paint-brushes,  drenching 
one  another  with  improvised  shower-baths,  painting 
faces  and  dyeing  hair,  dashing  cologne  into  the  eyes, 
and  spending  the  evening  in  making  guys  of  themselves. 
Lest  this  may  seem  exaggeration,  I  may  add  that  it  is  a 
condensed  description  of  a  night  of  revelry  in  one  of  the 
most  fashionable  houses,  as  I  received  it  at  breakfast  on 
Ash  Wednesday  from  one  of  the  chief  merrymakers,  who 
closed  his  account  by  remarking  that  it  surprised  him 
every  year  to  observe  how  completely  the  conventional 
ideas  of  social  decorum  were  relaxed  during  carnival 
week.  Lent,  with  its  litanies  and  doleful  music,  puts  an 
end  to  all  social  license.  Men  and  women  meet  again 
under  the  restraints  which  are  ordinarily  maintained, 
and  nowhere  in  South  America  are  the  proprieties  of 
life  more  rigorously  enforced  than  in  Lima. 

The  women  of  the  upper  circles  in  the  Peruvian 
capital  have  always  been  famous  for  their  beauty.  There 
is  a  practical  way  of  testing  such  a  tradition  as  this. 


LIMA   IN   CARNIVAL   WEEK  197 

The  photographers'  show-cases  contain  large  collections 
of  the  beautiful  women  of  Lima.  There  is  not  another 
city  in  South  America  where  such  comely  and  refined 
faces  are  brought  under  the  traveller's  eyes.  The  con- 
tour is  one  of  their  chief  charms.  It  is  a  delicately 
curved  oval,  with  dark,  deep-set  eyes,  and  black,  glossy 
hair.  Most  of  the  photographs  in  the  show-cases  are 
taken  in  full  dress,  and  disclose  the  graceful  figure  and 
lovely  arms  for  which  the  high-bred  women  of  Lima 
have  been  famous  for  generations.  The  sun  is  an  artist 
whose  judgment  in  such  matters  is  entitled  to  the 
highest  respect ;  but  lest  it  may  be  thought  that  I  am 
placing  too  much  dependence  upon  photographs,  a 
second  test  may  be  mentioned.  Every  afternoon  trains 
of  ten  or  twelve  cars,  carrying  hundreds  of  fair  travel- 
lers, leave  the  three  railway  stations  at  various  hours 
for  the  seaside  bathing  resorts.  There  the  beauty  and 
fashion  of  the  capital  are  displayed,  and  the  evidence  of 
the  photographs  is  fully  sustained.  Two  additional 
charms  are  to  be  noted  —  small  and  daintily  shaj)ed  feet, 
and  low,  musical  voices.  The  constant  play  of  expres- 
sion in  a  well-bred  Lima  lady's  face,  when  she  is  talking 
with  a  friend,  is  not  the  least  among  her  attractions. 

In  olden  days  the  women  of  Lima  had  a  characteris- 
tic dress  to  set  off  their  physical  charms.  This  was  a 
close-fitting  skirt,  in  later  times  made  full,  and  a  man- 
tle fastened  at  the  waist,  brought  over  the  head  and 
held  with  the  hand  so  as  to  show  one  eye.  This  cos- 
tume made  the  dark,  fascinating  eye  and  the  shapely 
arm  conspicuous ;  but  it  covered  the  lovely  contour  of 
the  face.  It  is  never  seen  now  ;  but  there  is  a  reminis- 
cence of  it  in  the  embroidered  manta.  The  tapada  was 
practically  a  mask  with  which  to  conceal  the  face,  and 


198  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

these  Lima  beauties  had  no  cause  to  do  that.  It  was, 
moreover,  a  costume  lacking  in  individuality,  like  the 
black  gowns  and  mantas  now  worn  by  women  of  every 
class  when  they  go  to  church.  The  fireflies  that  have 
been  flashing  their  beauty  in  the  revels  of  carnival 
week  are  black  crickets  during  Lent,  chirping  their 
Ave  Marias  and  prayers  from  the  pavements  of  the 
musty  churches. 

It  was  fortunate,  perhaps,  that  I  saw  so  many  of  the 
handsome  women  of  Lima  in  the  Chorillos  and  Callao 
trains,  for  otherwise  my  faith  in  the  sun's  trustworthi- 
ness, as  disclosed  in  the  photographers'  rooms,  would 
have  been  disturbed,  after  contrasting  the  pictures  of 
the  churches  with  the  buildings  themselves.  In  photo- 
graphs these  temples  are  wonderful  examples  of  ornate 
architecture,  with  fa9ades  of  intricate  tracery  and  delicate 
carving.  In  reality  the  churches  are  debased  speci- 
mens of  elaborately  ornamented  Renaissance  architec- 
ture, with  mud,  bamboo,  and  plaster  as  the  building 
materials,  tricked  out  with  innumerable  images,  statues, 
marble  columns,  and  a  meretricious  blur  of  contrasting 
colors.  Possibly  the  cathedral  may  be  reserved  as  pos- 
sessing some  effective  features,  when  one  is  some  dis- 
tance away,  so  as  to  lose  sight  of  the  little  statuettes, 
turrets,  and  red  marble  pillars,  and  to  see  only  the  sil- 
houette of  its  massive  towers  and  broad  Gothic  nave 
projected  against  a  yellow  sunset  sky ;  but  San  Pedro, 
San  Francisco,  La  Merced,  and  all  the  other  adobe 
churches  and  convents,  with  their  ostentatious  plaster 
cloisters,  domes,  and  timber  towers,  and  their  compli- 
cated fronts  of  painted  stucco  work  and  fussy  carving,  are 
irredeemably  bad  from  every  point  of  view.  Some  of 
the  interiors  are  imposing,  as,  for  example,  the  nave  of  San 


LIMA   IN    CARNIVAL   WEEK  199 

Francisco,  with  its  lofty  arches ;  but  the  exteriors,  with 
the  stucco  fronts  and  the  gaudily  painted  towers,  in  start- 
ling combinations  of  red,  black,  yellow,  and  blue,  are 
simply  vile,  venerable  though  the  religious  associations 
connected  with  them  may  be.  Nothing  could  be  more 
misleading  than  a  photograph  of  a  Lima  church ;  and  on 
this  account  the  women  of  the  city,  who  are  really  beau- 
tiful, are  placed  at  a  serious  disadvantage  when  their 
faces  are  exhibited  on  the  same  walls  with  those  spuri- 
ous samples  of  adobe  Renaissance. 

With  the  numerous  churches  summarily  dismissed 
from  consideration,  the  general  aspects  of  Lima  call 
for  slight  comment.  The  main  plaza  has  the  cathedral 
and  Archbishop's  house  on  one  side,  on  another  the 
palace  of  the  Viceroys,  painted  a  dull  green,  and  arcades 
with  small  shops  on  the  other  two.  In  the  centre  there 
is  a  brisk  fountain,  surrounded  by  ill-kept  flower-beds 
and  ambitious  statuary.  The  halls  of  the  deputies  and 
the  senate  are  ancient  structures  of  no  architectural 
merit  in  the  Plaza  de  la  Independencia,  where  there  is 
a  really  good  work  of  art,  an  equestrian  statue  of 
Bolivar.  In  another  and  remote  quarter  of  the  city 
there  is  a  handsome  and  tasteful  monument  of  French 
design  erected  in  honor  of  the  successful  defence  of 
Callao  against  the  Spaniards.  Beyond  the  Rimac,  with 
its  three  bridges,  is  the  famous  Alameda  of  statuary ; 
and  not  far  away  are  the  handsome  Exhibition  buildings 
of  1872,  with  the  statue  of  Columbus,  and  the  neglected 
botanical  gardens.  These  are  among  the  most  ambitious 
of  the  architectural  pretensions  of  a  capital  which  was 
ravaged  and  plundered  by  the  Chilians.  There  is  one 
well-organized  hospital  and  also  a  university. 

Lima  is  rich  in  historic  traditions  of  the  Incas  and 


200  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

PizaiTO,  and  in  reminiscences  of  former  prosperity  and 
greatness ;  but  it  is  poverty-stricken  in  appearance, 
and  the  population  has  fallen  to  110,000.  The  streets  are 
narrow,  paved  with  cobblestones,  and  ill-lighted.  In  the 
olden  time  drainage  was  provided  for  by  open  conduits 
in  the  middle  of  the  principal  streets,  and  buzzards  were 
the  scavengers  of  the  town.  These  trenches  have  been 
covered  over  and  converted  into  sewer-pipes,  emptying 
into  the  Rimac,  which  flows  through  the  centre  of  the 
city  with  a  swift  current,  when  swollen  with  rains  in  the 
mountains.  This  is  a  marked  sanitary  improvement; 
but  there  are  few  other  signs  of  progress.  The  rows 
of  adobe  houses  and  shops  are  low,  dingy,  and  shabby. 
The  most  prominent  feature  of  the  domestic  architec- 
ture is  the  irregular  line  of  wooden  boxes  running  across 
the  fronts  of  the  altos,  or  second  stories,  and  projecting 
over  the  sidewalks.  For  four  or  five  feet  from  the  bot- 
tom these  are  completely  inclosed,  so  that  the  occupants 
are  screened  from  view  from  the  street ;  and  above  the 
balcony  railing  there  are  swinging  glass  doors  or  lattice- 
work shutters.  These  balconies  offer  facilities  for  out- 
door lounging  at  all  seasons ;  and  during  the  carnival 
the  water  brigades  are  stationed  in  them,  as  well  as  on 
the  flat  roofs  overhead.  The  facility  with  which  the 
narrow  streets  are  commanded  from  these  covered 
ambuscades  has  undoubtedly  encouraged  the  custom  of 
showering  water  upon  pedestrians  and  mule-riders. 

Nearly  every  house  and  shop  has  a  flagstaff,  from  which 
streamers  of  bunting  are  displayed  on  national  holidays, 
and  banners  and  religious  emblems  on  popular  feast 
and  saints'  days,  of  which  there  is  a  full  calendar.  The 
ground  floor  of  a  house  is  ordinarily  occupied  by  shops 
on  each  side  of  the  arched  entrance,  which  is  barred 


LIMA   IN   CARNIVAL    WEEK  201 

with  double  iron  gates.  Within  is  the  passageway  lead- 
ing to  the  central  courtyard,  the  walls  often  being  deco- 
rated with  inferior  paintings,  either  religious  or  classical 
in  subject.  A  winding  stairway  conducts  the  visitor  to 
the  second  floor,  where  there  are  large,  airy  apartments 
surrounding  the  interior  court.  Some  of  the  best 
houses  have  only  one  floor,  with  high  vaulted  ceilings 
and  double  patios.  The  most  pretentious  mercantile 
offices  are  approached  by  archways  leading  through 
paved  courts.  The  shops  are  small  and  make  little 
display,  many  of  them  being  hardly  more  than  stalls. 
Some  of  the  best  patronized  stores  are  narrow  boxes 
under  the  covered  paved  walks  of  the  arcades  in  the 
main  plaza. 

The  Spanish  pioneers  in  Peru  were  mainly  Castilians. 
This  accounts  not  only  for  the  beauty  of  the  women,  but 
also  for  the  purity  of  the  language  spoken.  The  Span- 
ish heard  in  the  best  circles  is  in  idiom  and  pronun- 
ciation the  least  corrupted  in  South  America.  The 
Castilian  blood  explains  also  that  passion  for  excitement 
and  that  inherent  love  of  pleasure  which  have  always 
been  marked  characteristics  of  the  Peruvian  capital. 
Bull-fights  have  retained  their  popularity;  but  the 
exhibitions  are  not  so  coarse  and  barbarous  as  those  in 
Montevideo.  Horses  are  not  gored  and  killed,  the 
skill  of  the  riders  and  the  tormentors  being-  shown  in 
distracting  the  attention  of  the  bull  and  preventing 
wanton  and  unnecessary  bloodshed.  The  bull-ring  is 
superior  to  the  shabby  enclosure  in  Montevideo,  and  is 
the  largest  in  Spanish  America.  Cock-pits  also  flourish, 
but  are  no  longer  patronized  by  ladies  of  fashion  as  in 
the  olden  days.  There  are  two  theatres,  but  in  these 
hard   times  their   business    is   not  remunerative.     The 


202  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

passion  for  gambling  has  somewhat  abated,  owing  prob- 
ably to  the  lack  of  prosperity  in  the  poverty-stricken 
capital ;  but  public  lotteries  conducted  for  religious  or 
benevolent  objects  still  flourish,  the  streets  being  filled 
day  and  night  with  starveling  boys,  who  have  tickets  to 
hawk  with  creaking  voices  and  shrill  outcries.  In  for- 
mer days  religious  feasts,  like  St.  John's  Da}^  with 
open-air  festivities  in  the  valley  of  the  Amancaes,  were 
converted  into  a  saturnalia  of  dissipation,  indecent  danc- 
ing, and  riotous  romping  for  the  recreation  of  the  lower 
classes ;  but  there  has  been  a  marked  improvement  in 
public  morals  and  in  popular  amusements.  The  carni- 
val scenes  now  represent  the  extremity  to  which  ex- 
cesses are  carried  by  this  pleasure-loving  population. 

Lima  is  one  of  the  pleasantest  cities  south  of  the 
Isthmus  as  a  place  of  permanent  residence  for  foreigners. 
One's  earliest  impressions  of  it  are  invariably  disap- 
pointing ;  but  that  is  because  imagination,  inspired  by 
tales  of  the  Incas  and  the  Spanish  conquest,  has  drawn 
too  large  drafts  upon  credulity.  A  day  or  two  is 
required  for  discounting  these  credits,  and  readjusting 
one's  ideas  to  current  conditions.  Then  Lima  is  found 
to  be  a  city  with  many  attractions.  The  weather  is 
sultry,  but  the  heat  is  not  inclement ;  and  the  climate 
the  year  round  is  equable,  albeit  slightly  enervating 
from  the  lack  of  anything  resembling  winter.  One  soon 
comes  to  have  a  real  affection  for  the  bright  plaza,  with 
its  portales  and  Moorish  effects ;  and  the  foreign  society 
one  finds  is  delightful.  It  may  be  that  my  own  im- 
pressions were  too  strongly  colored  by  exceptionally 
favorable  surroundings,  for  the  American  Minister,  the 
Hon.  John  Hicks,  and  the  Secretary  of  Legation, 
Richard    Renshaw   Neill,    were   most    indefatigable    in 


LIMA  IN   CARNIVAL   WEEK  203 

promoting  my  pleasure  and  comfort,  and  in  introducing 
me  to  people  whom  I  was  most  anxious  to  meet.  If 
Lima  receives  a  visitor  in  carnival  week  with  a  dash 
of  cold  water,  it  speedily  overwhelms  him  with  gentle 
courtesies  and  completely  wins  his  heart. 

Past  and  present  jostle  each  other  at  every  turn  in 
the  Peruvian  capital.  One  starts  out  for  a  morning 
stroll,  and  is  nearly  run  off  his  feet  by  a  drove  of 
donkeys  loaded  with  the  newest  English  and  German 
calicoes  for  the  interior,  and  the  next  moment  he  sees  a 
swarthy  Indian  milk-vender,  with  black  hair  braided 
behind  her  back  in  two  long  plaits,  who  looks  like  a 
daughter  of  the  Incas.  He  may  halt  at  one  end  of  the 
plaza  to  buy  a  morning  journal,  with  a  few  meagre 
dispatches  and  a  translation  of  a  French  romance,  or  he 
may  cross  over  to  the  cathedral,  fee  a  guide  and  be 
taken  below  to  the  dark  corner  where  Pizarro's  bones 
are  reputed  to  have  been  buried.  He  may  go  on  to  the 
central  market,  which  he  will  find  to  be  a  modern  bazaar 
of  European  wares,  as  well  as  a  base  of  supplies  for  the 
Lima  households,  and  a  short  turn  of  three  blocks  will 
bring  him  to  the  ancient  Plaza  of  the  Inquisition,  and 
the  hall  where  death  decrees  were  signed  by  fanatical 
judges  for  the  burning  of  heretics.  He  may  take  a 
new-fangled  ice  at  a  gilded  French  restaurant,  and  then 
stop  at  a  silversmith's  stall  and  drive  a  bargain  for  a 
battered  idol  buried  in  one  of  the  aboriginal  cemeteries 
centuries  before  Pizarro  crossed  the  seas  on  liis  errand 
of  conquest.  There  is  the  garish  daylight  of  industrial 
occupation  and  pleasurable  excitement,  and  there  is 
the  moonlijrht  of  historic  reminiscence  shining;  with 
reflected  lustre  over  this  fabled  city  of  the  kings.  The 
clangor  of  bells  in  mediaeval  church-towers  summons 


204  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

a  motley  population  at  dawn  to  another  brief  term  of 
labor ;  but  there  is  a  melancholy  cadence  which  seems  to 
tell  of  bygone  glory,  deeds  of  darkness  and  shame,  and 
disastrous  wars  of  conquest.  There  is  no  other  South 
American  town  where  the  spirit  of  the  past  colors  so 
strongly  the  life  of  the  present. 

It  is  the  afternoon  hour  for  the  bathing  trains.  Surely 
there  will  be  nothing  in  the  ride  to  Chorillos  to  divert 
one's  thoughts  from  the  Lima  of  to-day!  There  are 
nine  or  ten  cars  filled  with  men,  women,  and  childi'en, 
who  are  going  for  a  dip  in  the  sea.  On  the  American 
and  English  railways  there  are  similar  trains  with 
throngs  destined  for  the  surf  baths  at  Callao  and  the 
Point.  Sea-bathing  is  the  fashionable  medical  prescrip- 
tion for  every  ill  to  which  flesh  is  heir.  A  theory  has 
been  started  that  it  is  necessary  to  take  these  baths  in 
order  to  sustain  bodily  vigor.  Not  that  there  is  aught 
amiss  with  the  climate.  Lima  in  that  respect  is  as 
highly  favored  as  Eden,  as  every  Peruvian  enthusiast 
will  tell  you ;  but  even  Adam  and  Eve,  they  will  add, 
must  have  found  perpetual  summer  and  a  rainless 
Paradise  slightly  debilitating.  There  is  no  winter  in 
Peru  and  something  is  needed  as  a  substitute  for  tonic 
effect  upon  the  human  system.  Surf -bathing,  according 
to  the  fashionable  medical  theory,  is  a  mild  touch  of 
winter,  and  it  promotes  physical  reaction.  It  accom- 
plishes in  the  course  of  a  year  what  is  effected  by 
alternating  changes  of  season  in  higher  latitudes.  It 
serves  to  protect  the  lotos-eaters  of  Lima  from  the 
enervating  influences  of  a  perfect  climate.  Certainly  it 
is  a  touch  of  winter.  The  Humboldt  current  coming 
from  the  Antarctic  lowers  the  temperature  of  the  surf 
alono-   the    rainless   coast.     The   water   at   Callao   and 


LIMA   IN   CARNIVAL   WEEK  205 

Chorillos,  in  the  warmest  weather,  is  colder  than  the 
surf  at  Coney  IsLand  in  October.  It  is  a  plunge,  not 
into  tepid,  but  into  downright  cold  water,  which  is 
taken  as  a  substitute  for  winter.  Some  physicians  have 
gone  so  far  as  to  recommend  two  surf-baths  a  day  for 
j)atients  suffering  from  languor  induced  by  the  de- 
lightful conditions  of  existence  at  Lima.  Fashion  has 
sanctioned  the  practice  of  frequent  surf-bathing.  The 
trains  are  filled  every  afternoon  with  the  wealth  and 
fashion  of  Lima. 

But  what  station  is  this  at  which  the  train  draws  up 
in  its  progress  seaward?  It  is  Mirafiores,  the  scene  of 
the  last  stand  made  by  the  Peruvian  army  in  defence  of 
Lima.  Before  the  war  it  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
suburbs,  where  wealthy  merchants  owned  fine  country 
estates.  After  the  battle  it  was  pillaged  and  burned, 
and  from  the  desolation  and  ruin  wrought  on  that 
fateful  day  it  has  never  recovered.  It  was  on  the  hill- 
sides above  the  station  that  the  campaign,  fought  for 
the  possession  of  the  nitrate  and  guano  beds  of  the 
coast,  was  brought  to  an  end.  The  Chilians,  acquiring 
complete  command  of  the  sea  after  the  capture  of  the 
Huascar,  had  sent  an  army  of  25,000  men  to  Pisco 
after  the  conquest  of  Tarapacd  and  Tacna.  Only  an 
inferior  force  of  disheartened  Peruvians  could  be  rallied 
against  them.  After  Mirafiores,  Lima  was  at  the  mercy 
of  the  invaders,  and  was  only  saved  from  destruction 
like  a  brand  out  of  the  burning,  by  the  determined 
efforts  of  the  foreign  residents. 

This,  too,  is  Chorillos,  once  an  obscure  fishing  village, 
with  singularly  bold  and  varied  coast  scenery,  and  after- 
ward the  favorite  watering-place  of  Lima,  where  the 
wealthiest  families  passed  the  summers,  and  where  fort- 


206  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

unes  were  won  and  lost  by  gaming.  The  hardest  fight- 
ing of  the  fierce  battle  which  decided  the  fate  of  the 
capital  was  on  the  crest  of  the  morro  overlooking  the 
bathing  houses.  The  Chilians,  advancing  upon  Lima 
and  storming  a  long  line  of  defensive  works,  had  been 
held  at  bay  for  a  few  hours,  and  then  were  left  in  pos- 
session of  the  field.  Chorillos,  with  its  seaside  hotels 
and  summer  cottages,  was  plundered  and  burned  to 
the  ground.  At  least  six  thousand  Peruvian  soldiers 
were  killed  on  these  two  battle-fields,  and  about  thirteen 
hundred  Chilians.  It  is  within  a  short  distance  of  this 
battleground,  where  kinsmen  and  friends  fought  for  the 
defence  of  Lima  and  were  shot  down  and  massacred, 
that  crowd  of  bathers  now  disport  themselves  morning 
and  afternoon.  Chorillos  has  been  partly  rebuilt,  but  it 
has  not  regained  its  former  prestige  as  the  most  fash- 
ionable pleasure  resort  of  the  West  Coast.  The  charred 
ruins  have  disappeared,  but  its  prosperity  has  not  been 
restored.  The  misfortunes  of  Peru  culminated  in  those 
two  crushing  defeats  at  Chorillos  and  Miraflores.  It 
was  the  second  invasion  of  a  country  inhabited  by  a 
people  naturally  industrious  and  peaceable.  It  was  as 
disastrous  in  its  results  as  Pizarro's  campaign  against 
the  subject  races  of  the  Incas. 

Ten  miles  south  of  Chorillos  are  the  ruins  of  an  older 
civilization  than  Pizarro's,  —  the  work  of  the  same  won- 
derful builders  whose  aqueducts,  roads,  villages,  and 
temples  are  found  throughout  Peru.  The  Temple  of 
Pachacamac,  in  the  Lurin  Valley,  is  now  hardly  dis- 
tinguishable from  the  tussocks  of  sand  which  are  found 
everywhere  along  the  rainless  coast.  Twenty  years 
ago  it  was  possible  to  trace  the  outlines  of  the  palace, 
the  Temple  of  the  Sun,  public  squares,  broad  avenues, 


LIMA   IN    CARNIVAL    WEEK  207 

and  the  foundations  of  ancient  houses,  and  also  to  ex- 
plore the  tombs  of  princes  and  people.  The  sepulchres 
have  been  opened  and  plundered,  the  yellow  sand  has 
accumulated  on  the  bleak  hillside,  and  the  extensive 
remains  of  the  aboriginal  city,  with  its  terraces,  are  now 
almost  buried  out  of  sight  and  remembrance.  Like  the 
mounds  near  Truxillo,  this  temple  represents  the  indus- 
try of  a  primitive  coast  race  which  was  conquered  by 
the  Incas  at  least  a  century  before  the  appearance  of 
Pizarro.  The  Chilian  armies,  in  their  march  from 
Lurin  to  Chorillos,  passed  the  ruins  of  cities  built 
both  by  the  conquered  coast  nation  and  by  the  vic- 
torious Incas ;  they  followed  in  the  track  of  Pizarro ; 
and  they  left  behind  them  blackened  heaps  where  had 
stood  the  coast  resorts  and  suburbs  of  Lima.  So  his- 
tory has  repeated  itself  in  the  wonderful  Valley  of  the 
Rimac. 

The  Chilians,  with  a  stronger  infusion  of  Spanish 
blood,  conquered  the  descendants  of  the  Incas  whose 
power  was  overthrown  by  Pizarro.  It  was  an  invasion 
as  calamitous  for  Peru  as  that  earlier  campaign  of 
conquest.  For  nine  years  there  were  dictatorships  in- 
volving civil  war.  The  future  of  the  country  seemed 
hopeless  until  under  President  Caceres's  administration 
the  compromise  with  the  bondholders  was  effected,  and 
there  was  a  marked  improvement  in  public  affairs. 
His  term  was  about  to  expire  when  I  visited  Peru, 
and  the  succession  was  a  matter  of  grave  uncertaint}'-. 
There  had  been  four  candidates  in  the  field ;  but  Colonel 
Morales  Bermudez  was  understood  to  be  the  favored 
candidate  of  the  Government,  and  he  was  successful  in 
April,  1890.  The  elections  in  Peru  are  generally  car- 
ried by  the  party  which  obtains  possession  of  the  ballot- 


208  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

boxes,  and  in  a  struggle  of  this  nature  the  government 
of  the  day  exercises  overwhelming  influence.  The  Indi- 
ans in  the  interior  have  little  to  do  with  determining  the 
political  fortunes  of  the  country,  although  they  consti- 
tute the  mass  of  the  population.  They  have  been  help- 
less victims  either  of  wars  of  conquest  like  Pizarro's  and 
the  Chilian  campaign,  or  of  political  strife  by  which  the 
rule  of  military  adventurers  has  been  established,  or  of 
financial  compromises  by  which  foreign  investors  have 
foreclosed  their  mortgages  upon  the  resources  of  the 
nation. 


XI 

GUAYAQUIL   AND   THE   ISTHMUS 

VOYAGE      FROM      CALLAO      TO      PANAMA  —  ECUADOR'S      BUSY 

PORT  —  THE    ISTHMUS    CAPITAL WATER    AFTER    COGNAC 

AND    CHAMPAGNE  —  CONFLICTING   VIEWS    OF    THE   FRENCH 

CANAL EXTENSION    OF     THE    CONCESSIONS  —  PROBABLE 

ACTION    OF    THE    COLOMBIAN    GOVERNMENT 

No  voyage  could  have  been  more  delightful  than  the 
run  from  Callao  to  Panama  with  Captain  Hullah  in 
the  steamer  Coquimho.  The  Secretary  of  the  American 
Legation  and  the  acting  American  Consul  accompanied 
me  to  the  steamer,  and  introduced  me  to  several  fellow- 
passengers  from  Lima,  so  that  before  the  ship  sailed  I 
was  surrounded  with  acquaintances.  Captain  Hullah 
was  unceasing  in  promoting  the  pleasure  of  the  passen- 
gers, and  good  fellowship  reigned  during  the  voyage  of 
eight  days.  The  heat  was  not  unpleasantly  felt,  although 
we  crossed  the  equator  with  a  nearly  vertical  sun 
toward  the  end  of  February.  The  sea  was  smooth, 
except  in  open  roadsteads  where  the  ship  was  rocked 
by  a  heavy  swell.  A  fresh  breeze  invariably  had  a  cool 
breath.  Sunsets  of  pale  shades  of  yellow,  pink,  and 
saffron  revealed  new  beauties  every  night.  It  was  an 
almost  ideal  voyage  in  southern  waters. 

A  hundred  miles  north  of  the  desert  levels  of  Payta 
the  rainless  zone  comes  abruptly  to  an  end.  At  Tum- 
bez  there  is  a  sudden  transition  from  sandy  barren,  and 

209 


210  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

bare  cliffs  to  heavily  wooded  shores,  and  the  freshest 
and  rankest  vegetation.  At  the  Gulf  of  Guayaquil  the 
rainless  coast  is  no  longer  seen.  A  rainy  zone  is  entered 
with  vistas  of  equatorial  woods  and  luxuriant  foliage. 
The  scientific  reasons  advanced  in  explanation  of  this 
sudden  change  are  more  numerous  than  satisfactory. 
Many  of  the  theories  based  upon  prevailing  winds  and 
ocean  currents  are  flatly  contradicted  by  the  logbooks 
of  experienced  sea  captains  navigating  these  waters. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  more  interesting  field  for 
physical  investigation  than  the  West  Coast  of  South 
America,  with  its  2000  miles  of  barren  cliffs,  and  its 
sudden  and  amazing  contrasts  of  vegetation  in  the  Gulf 
of  Guayaquil. 

Guayaquil  is  practically  the  only  port  of  a  country 
equalling  in  territorial  extent  the  New  England  and 
Middle  States,  with  Maryland,  Ohio,  and  Indiana  added. 
It  is  the  collecting  point  for  the  produce  of  this  wide 
district,  and  the  base  of  its  foreign  supplies.  Situated 
thirty  miles  from  the  entrance  to  the  Gulf,  it  has  a  good 
harbor  accessible  under  favorable  conditions  of  the  tides 
to  vessels  of  heavy  draught.  Several  inland  ri^vers  are 
navigable  beyond  it,  and  the  mule-roads  lead  from  it  to 
Quito,  the  low-lying  coast  lands  and  the  forest  belt  of 
the  Montana.  With  all  the  disadvantages  of  an  ener- 
vating climate,  and  of  the  reactionary  tendencies  of  the 
least  progressive  and  most  priest-ridden  government  on 
the  Southern  Continent,  it  has  surpassed  Callao  in 
population,  having  now  about  35,000  inhabitants.  The 
volume  of  its  commerce  is  slowly  but  steadily  increasing, 
as  it  is  the  only  distributing  point  for  the  exports  and 
imports  of  Ecuador.  For  a  mile  along  the  water  front 
there  are  warehouses  and  shops,  and  there   is  a  brisk 


GUAYAQUIL   AND   THE   ISTHMUS  211 

movement  in  the  streets.  The  town  itself,  with  its 
quaint  double-towered  churches,  and  its  weather-beaten 
houses  with  bamboo  framing  coated  with  mud  and  plas- 
ter, is  not  impressive ;  but  its  inland  and  foreign  trade, 
capable  of  rapid  development  after  the  opening  of  rail- 
way communication  with  Quito,  entitles  it  to  serious 
consideration  among  Spanish-American  cities.  The 
United  States  has  about  one-fifth  of  the  total  volume  of 
trade,  its  exports  and  imports  being  nearly  equal.  With 
English,  French,  and  German  merchants,  competing 
actively  for  the  trade,  and  with  American  shipping 
seldom  seen  in  the  Gulf  of  Guayaquil,  this  result  can 
only  be  explained  in  one  way.  There  has  been  an 
American  mercantile  house  on  the  ground  since  1869, 
and  it  has  displayed  commendable  enterprise  in  intro- 
ducing manufactures  and  products  from  the  United 
States.  This  house  has  identified  itself  with  the  mate- 
rial interests  of  the  country,  and  has  been  successful  in 
extending  American  trade. 

From  Cape  St.  Helena,  the  northern  headland  of  the 
Gulf  of  Guayaquil,  and  Cape  St.  Francisco  near  the 
equator,  the  coast  makes  a  long  easterly  detour  curv- 
ing backward  toward  the  80th  meridian  at  Panama. 
The  West  Coast  steamers  would  lengthen  their  routes 
more  than  one-third,  if  they  followed  the  shore  and  called 
at  the  Colombian  ports.  For  this  reason,  and  also  be- 
cause the  intermediate  ports  are  insignificant,  they  make 
no  stops  between  Guayaquil  and  the  Isthmus.  Two 
great  gulfs  are  formed  by  the  arch  of  the  Isthmus ;  the 
Bay  of  Panama  which  is  at  least  120  marine  miles  broad 
at  its  mouth,  and  the  Gulf  of  Darien  which  measures 
over  200  miles  in  width  from  Point  San  Bias  to  Carta- 
gena.    With  1000  miles  of  seaboard,  600  on  the  Pacific 


212  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

and  400  on  the  Caribbean,  Colombia  has  practically  only 
the  two  Isthmus  ports,  Panama  and  Colon,  and  the  two 
keys  of  the  Magdalena  Valley,  Cartagena  and  Barran- 
quilla. 

The  picturesque  old  town  of  Panama  has  so  foul  a 
reputation  as  one  of  the  worst  plague  spots  of  the  tropics, 
that  wary  travellers  double  their  doses  of  quinine  forty- 
eight  hours  out  at  sea,  and  anxiously  number  the  hours 
while  they  are  in  port.  So  strong  is  the  prejudice 
against  it,  that  the  scenic  beauty  of  the  harbor  escapes 
observation,  and  the  quaint  buildings,  the  charming 
drives  through  the  suburbs,  and  the  fine  prospects  to  be 
had  from  the  Battery,  are  not  appreciated.  At  the  risk 
of  being  considered  an  optimist  I  must  deliberately  re- 
cord my  testimony  to  the  effect  that  a  week  may  be 
pleasantly  passed  on  the  Isthmus.  Panama  may  have 
been  a  pandemonium  during  the  canal  revels;  but  it  is 
now  a  reputable  town  where  one  may  remain  with 
security,  and  form  friendships  which  will  be  the  treasure- 
trove  of  a  protracted  foreign  journey.  The  ruins  of  the 
old  city  founded  after  Balboa's  first  glimpse  of  the 
Pacific,  and  established  as  the  stronghold  of  Spanish 
power,  from  which  Peru  was  conquered  and  Central 
America  overrun,  lie  five  miles  to  the  south  buried  under 
the  tropical  growth  and  decay  of  two  centuries.  The 
only  landmark  of  this  famous  town  which  can  be  seen 
from  the  harbor  is  the  crumbling  tower  of  the  church 
where  Pizarro  offered  his  prayers  and  vows  to  the  Vir- 
gin before  sailing  southward  for  the  conquest  of  Peru. 
Morgan,  the  boldest  of  the  buccaneers,  sacked  and  de- 
stroyed the  old  city  with  its  Moorish  churches  adorned 
with  gold  and  pearls,  and  its  luxurious  vice-regal  court. 
Panama  as  it  is  known  to-day  was  rebuilt,  in  1673,  with 


GUAYAQUIL  AND   THE  ISTHMUS  213 

Indian  labor  and  the  best  Spanish  engineering  science 
and  artistic  taste.  How  well  the  work  was  done  the 
fragments  of  the  military  walls  and  the  massive  foun- 
dations of  masonry  at  the  Battery  disclose.  How  true 
was  the  artistic  instinct  is  shown  by  the  oldest  of  the 
churches  which  are  genuine  samples  of  characteristic 
Moorish  architecture  unaffected  by  a  spurious  and  de- 
based Renaissance,  with  which  Spanish-American  cities 
are  ordinarily  encumbered. 

Panama  as  the  key  of  the  rock-ribbed  Isthmus  uniting 
two  continents  has  felt  the  impress  of  four  mighty  races 
in  the  triumphs  and  vicissitudes  of  its  career.  Spain 
converted  it  into  the  military  centre  of  a  vast  realm  of 
conquest.  The  buccaneers  raided  and  plundered  it  in 
founding  the  English  colonial  empire  and  challenging 
Spanish  ascendency  in  the  New  World.  The  Americans 
built  the  Panama  Railway  through  fathomless  swamps 
and  pestilential  forests,  to  revive  its  fortunes  and  to 
establish  short  lines  of  communication  for  the  commerce 
of  the  world.  At  last  came  the  French  fresh  from  con- 
quests over  Nature  at  Suez  to  fire  the  ambitions  of  the 
historic  town,  to  debauch  its  morals,  and  to  leave  in  the 
unfinished  ditch  the  most  startling  memorial  of  human 
miscalculation  and  credulity  that  modern  civilization 
has  known.  The  collapse  of  M.  de  Lesseps's  project  has 
been  so  dire  a  catastrophe,  both  for  the  Isthmus  and  for 
French  investors,  that  the  incoming  traveller  can  have 
eyes  and  ears  for  nothing  else. 

Water  is  a  wholesome  but  insipid  drink  after  a 
riotous  excess  of  cognac  and  champagne.  Panama  dur- 
ing the  period  of  the  French  occupation  enjoyed  all 
the  excitement  of  a  prolonged  debauch.  Before  M.  de 
Lesseps's  arrival  on  the  Isthmus  in  January,  1880,  it 


214  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

was  a  drowsy  town,  which  the  transit  trade  had  failed 
to  enrich.  In  the  course  of  twelve  months  rents  of 
buildings  were  quadrupled,  the  prices  of  land  within  a 
few  blocks  of  the  handsome  little  plaza  were  more 
than  doubled,  and  the  most  sober-minded  residents 
were  seized  with  a  mania  for  speculation.  French  con- 
tractors came  in,  with  adventurers,  profligates,  and 
gamblers  close  behind  them.  For  nine  years  there 
were  high  prices,  feverish  excitement,  business  activity, 
hard  drinking,  and  general  demoralization.  Chamjoagne 
flowed  and  diamonds  flashed.  Improvidence  in  canal 
management  was  matched  by  reckless  play  in  the  gam- 
bling hells.  Corruption,  bribery,  and  immorality  were 
rampant.  The  moral  sense  of  the  staid  old  town  was 
perverted  long  before  the  collapse  of  the  canal  enter- 
prise. The  mercenary  contractors,  the  tainted  adven- 
turers, the  diamond  merchants,  the  gamblers  and  the 
rakes  retired  from  the  Isthmus  when  their  occupation 
had  gone.  Panama  awoke  from  its  debauch  in  1889 
to  live  on  water  in  place  of  cognac.  Rents  and  real 
estate  values  went  down  with  a  rush ;  trade  declined ; 
the  throngs  of  loungers  in  the  great  tap-room  opposite 
the  cathedral  thinned  out ;  diamonds  disappeared  from 
the  streets  ;  life  became  painfully  quiet  and  uneventful. 
The  times  were  dull,  and  Panama  craved  the  stimu- 
lative effects  of  the  old  excitement,  profligacy,  and 
riotous  living.  It  demanded,  with  passionate  intensity 
of  feeling,  the  completion  of  the  Panama  Canal.  It 
was  a  matter  of  public  indifference  whether  the  work 
were  done  by  the  French,  the  English,  or  the  Americans, 
so  long  as  it  were  undertaken  by  some  well-equipped 
body  of  capitalists  for  the  revival  of  the  business  of 
the  town,  and,  incidentally,  for  the  welfare  of  the 
maritime  world. 


GUAYAQUIL    AND   THE   ISTHMUS  215 

Panama  was  awaiting  when  I  visited  it,  in  March, 
1890,  the  report  of  the  canal  commission  from  Paris, 
with  the  forced  cheerfulness  and  the  suppressed  excite- 
ment of  an  unlucky  gambler,  watching  the  turn  of 
the  cards  that  will  determine  the  fate  of  his  last  gold 
piece.  M.  Brunet,  liquidator  of  the  company,  in  order 
to  inspire  public  confidence  in  the  mismanaged  and 
collapsed  enterprise,  appointed  an  international  commis- 
sion of  experts,  and  empowered  it  to  make  an  ex- 
haustive investigation  of  the  accounts  of  the  con- 
tractors, and  of  the  plans  and  estimates  of  the 
engineers,  and  to  decide  whether  the  completion  of 
the  canal  was  practical.  This  commission  dispatched  to 
the  Isthmus  a  delegation  of  five  experts.  The  delega- 
tion spent  five  weeks  on  the  Isthmus,  inspected  all  the 
material  and  machinery,  made  a  minute  and  thorough 
examination  of  every  section  of  the  proposed  water- 
way, and  critically  studied  the  estimates,  working  plans, 
and  revised  calculations  of  the  engineers.  They  were 
discreet  men,  for  they  left  the  Isthmus  without  impart- 
ing to  any  one  the  slightest  hint  respecting  their  im- 
pressions and  conclusions. 

I  found  at  Panama  pessimists  who  could  see  naught 
but  evil,  folly,  and  calamity,  in  the  canal  enterprise,  and 
also  optimists  who  had  the  faith  required  for  moving 
the  Culebra  Mountain,  and  restoring  the  flow  of  finan- 
cial investments  into  this  famous  ditch.  The  opti- 
mists were  in  majority ;  but  the  minority  were  exceed- 
ingly acrid  in  their  criticism  of  canal  management. 
I  felt  at  once  the  movement  of  these  hostile  forces. 
In  the  morning  the  canal  was  painted  black  for  me,  and 
in  the  afternoon  a  vivid  scarlet,  and  in  the  watches  of 
the  night,  as  I  listened  to  the  nerve-rending  clangor 


216  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

of  the  cathedral  bell,  or  the  ceaseless  clicking  of 
glasses  in  the  bar-room  of  the  Grand  Hotel,  I  was  too 
bewildered  to  discriminate  between  these  violent  con- 
trasts of  color.  A  week's  stay  in  the  Isthmus  con- 
vinced me  that  the  truth  lay  somewhere  between  the 
extreme  views  which  were  held  by  the  enemies  and 
the  partisans  of  the  canal.  That  the  management  of 
the  enterprise  in  all  the  stages  of  active  construction 
was  incapable,  reckless,  wasteful,  corrupt,  and  scan- 
dalous was  not  seriously  disputed.  This  was  one  of 
the  few  points  of  agreement  between  opponents  and 
advocates  of  the  canal.  Sharp  lines  of  divergence 
opened  at  nearly  all  other  points.  The  condition  of 
the  canal  property  was  represented,  on  the  one  hand, 
as  incredibly  bad,  and  on  the  other  as  phenomenally 
good.  The  houses  and  store-sheds  along  the  line  were 
described  as  rotting  from  unceasing  dampness ;  the 
material  and  machinery  as  corroding  with  rust  and 
rendered  practically  worthless ;  the  rolling  stock  and 
tracks  as  valueless  for  future  operations ;  the  costly 
dredges  as  water-logged  and  irretrievably  ruined ;  and 
the  bed  of  the  canal  as  rapidly  filling  up  with  sand  at 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  mouths,  and  as  littered  with  a 
rank  growth  of  tropical  vegetation  in  the  intermediate 
spaces.  On  the  other  hand,  the  engineers  asserted  that 
all  the  machinery,  material,  and  property  was  in  better 
condition  than  it  was  when  work  was  suspended  in 
1889,  and  that  at  a  signal  from  Paris  the  houses  could 
at  once  be  filled  with  workmen,  trains  of  earth-cars  set 
in  motion  on  the  construction  tracks,  and  a  dozen 
dredges  put  in  operation  within  a  week. 

The  Chief  Engineer  of  the  Panama  section,  a  brother 
of   the  acting  Director,  accompanied  me  to  the  Boca, 


GUAYAQUIL   AND   THE   ISTHMUS  217 

and  conveyed  me  in  a  steam  launch  through  the  com- 
pleted section  of  the  canal  and  the  Rio  Grande  as  far 
as  the  innermost  dredges.  Under  his  guidance  I  was 
enabled  not  only  to  see  the  Panama  section  of  the 
canal,  where  there  was  a  depth  of  eleven  metres  at 
high,  and  seven  at  low  water  —  a  depth  which  could 
readily  be  increased  two  metres  by  dredging  —  but  also 
to  inspect  the  numerous  craft,  dredges,  machines,  store- 
houses, and  buildings  of  the  Company.  Everything 
which  fell  under  my  eyes  was  in  excellent  order  and 
had  been  freshly  painted.  Subsequent  observations 
along  the  line  of  the  railway  and  at  Colon  convinced 
me  that  while  there  was  necessarily  some  degree  of 
deterioration  from  disuse  and  excessive  dampness,  the 
Company's  movable  property  was  in  a  fair  state  of 
preservation.  Why  should  it  not  be  well  cared  for? 
There  was  a  large  staff  of  officials  at  the  Isthmus  who 
had  nothing  to  do  except  to  look  after  the  material  and 
machinery.  The  Company  was  nominally  bankrupt; 
but  its  cashier  drew  regularly  upon  Paris  for  -$60,000  a 
month,  and  paid  out  that  amount  in  salaries  and  for 
general  expenses.  Paint  was  cheap  and  it  was  not 
spared.  Every  mile  of  the  canal  line  was  under  sur- 
veillance, and  the  property  was  in  as  good  condition  as 
the  circumstances  warranted.  Nevertheless  it  was  grad- 
ually deteriorating,  and  from  every  year  of  disuse  was 
losing  some  part  of  its  original  value. 

Respecting  the  practicability  of  the  completion  of  the 
canal,  I  found  the  widest  possible  lines  of  divergence 
between  the  opinions  of  the  pessimists  and  the  opti- 
mists. M.  Berges,  the  acting  Director,  assured  me 
that  there  were  on  the  Isthmus  no  engineering  difficul- 
ties which  could   not   be   readily  overcome  ;    that  the 


218  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

freshets  of  the  Chagres  had  caused  less  trouble  than 
was  anticipated  and  could  be  easily  controlled ;  that 
while  the  engineers  were  not  wholly  in  accord  respect- 
ing details,  there  was  a  substantial  agreement  on  the 
expediency  of  substituting  locks  for  the  original  tide- 
level  canal ;  and  that  the  completion  of  the  work  was  en- 
tirely practicable,  and  could  not,  in  his  judgment,  involve 
a  larger  expenditure  than  $100,000,000.  M.  Berges's 
brother,  one  of  the  principal  engineers,  told  me  that  the 
mechanical  difficulties  were  not  so  serious  as  they  had 
been  generally  regarded,  and  that  the  canal  could 
certainly  be  finished  if  the  requisite  capital  were  pro- 
vided ;  but  not,  he  thought,  for  1100,000,000.  Compe- 
tent engineers,  on  the  other  hand,  who  were  not  in 
the  interest  of  the  Company,  had  stated  that  at  least 
$300,000,000  would  be  required  in  order  to  open  the 
canal  for  inter-oceanic  traffic.  That  estimate  would 
increase  the  nominal  cost  of  the  work  to  $800,000,000, 
the  bonds  issued  having  had  a  face  value  of  $500,000,000, 
although  $265,000,000  probably  represented  the  actual 
amount  of  money  sunk  in  the  canal.  The  pessimists 
asserted  that  not  more  than  $80,000,000  of  honest  work 
was  ever  done  on  the  canal,  $185,000,000  having  been 
squandered  and  flung  away,  the  larger  part  of  it  in 
France,  without  its  reaching  the  Isthmus  at  all.  Here 
they  proved  too  much  for  their  case ;  for  if  only 
$80,000,000  had  been  expended  on  the  canal,  the  cost 
of  finishing  it  would  not  be  $300,000,000,  as  they  repre- 
sented, but  a  much  lower  limit.  This,  however,  they 
would  not  admit,  but  producing  section  maps  of  the 
Isthmus,  pointed  out  that  the  mountain  barriers  had 
only  been  scratched,  and  that  with  such  meagre  results 
to  show  for  vast  expenditures,  the  whole  scheme  was  to 


GUAYAQUIL   AND   THE   ISTHMUS  219 

be  condemned  as  impracticable  and  visionaiy.  One 
cause  of  the  variation  in  the  estimates,  it  must  be 
added,  was  the  lack  of  a  common  basis  of  calculation. 
The  French  engineers  were  basing  their  figures  upon  a 
canal  with  locks  and  an  artificial  lake  somewhere  in  the 
centre.  The  critics  were  calculating  the  cost  of  a  much 
more  expensive  work. 

A  year  afterward  I  returned  to  Panama  to  find  the 
French  Canal  enterprise  in  a  comatose  state  having  the 
semblance  of  death.  Its  friends  asserted  that  it  was 
sleeping ;  its  enemies  said  that  it  was  dead.  There  had 
been  diplomatic  incantations  and  jugglery  during  the 
intervening  year ;  but  there  were  no  signs  of  returning 
animation.  Life  could  only  come  fi-om  contact  with 
life.  Money  was  the  life  of  the  enterprise  when  the 
Isthmus  was  converted  into  a  hot-bed  of  speculative 
activity  and  reckless  expenditure.  Before  there  could 
be  stir  and  movement  among  the  dry  bones  of  M.  de 
Lesseps's  grand  project,  the  vivifying  impulses  of  fresh 
masses  of  capital  must  be  felt.  Not  one  encouraging 
word  had  been  received  from  Paris  since  Lieutenant 
Wyse's  departure  from  Bogota  and  the  Isthmus  to  indi- 
cate that  the  money  required  for  the  completion  of  the 
canal  could  be  secured.  Apparently  French  faith  in 
the  enterprise  had  been  exhausted. 

During  the  spring  of  1890  it  seemed  probable  that 
the  Colombian  Government  would  allow  the  original 
contract  to  expire  by  its  own  limitations,  and  would 
thereby  become  the  residuary  legatee  of  the  entire  work. 
This  was  undoubtedly  the  secret  policy  of  President 
Nuiiez.  While  the  executive  power  was  authorized  to 
grant  an  extension  of  time  for  the  completion  of  the 
canal,  it  could  not  be  compelled  to  do  so.     Tlie  Com- 


220  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

pany  had  been  organized  March  3d,  1880,  and  nnder 
the  conditions  of  the  contract  it  was  to  construct  and 
open  the  canal  during  the  period  ending  March  3d, 
1892.  By  availing  itself  of  its  rights  under  the  contract 
the  Colombian  Government  could  have  established  its 
absolute  ownership  of  the  unfinished  enterprise.  By 
declining  to  extend  the  construction  period  it  would 
have  succeeded  to  all  the  rights  of  the  bankrupt  Com- 
pany. It  would  have  secured  possession  of  all  the 
lands,  buildings,  and  everything  except  the  movable 
property  of  the  Company ;  and  it  would  also  have  estab- 
lished its  ownership  of  the  completed  fraction  of  the 
work,  variously  estimated  at  one-third,  one-fifth,  or  one- 
tenth  of  the  whole  undertaking.  President  Nunez,  it 
was  then  currently  believed,  favored  this  policy  on  the 
ground  that  the  Government  could  make  more  money 
out  of  the  enterprise  by  taking  possession  of  the  unfin- 
ished canal,  and  disposing  of  its  rights  to  a  new  Com- 
pany, than  by  extending  the  term  and  allowing  the 
assignees  of  the  French  Company  to  proceed  with  the 
work.  It  was  evident,  however,  that  the  Company 
would  appeal  to  the  courts,  and  not  surrender  control 
over  the  property  until  every  legal  expedient  had  been 
exhausted.  In  this  struggle,  moreover,  it  would  enlist 
the  sympathies  of  the  population  of  the  Isthmus  and  of 
adjoining  States,  and  the  Government  would  have  to 
face  the  risks  of  revolutionary  outbreaks. 

This  was  the  situation  when  Lieutenant  Wyse  subse- 
quently arrived  at  Panama  to  negotiate  an  extension  of 
the  period  allowed  for  construction.  He  was  in  a  dis- 
putatious mood  and  committed  many  tactical  blunders  ; 
and  when  he  went  to  Bogotd  he  was  drawn  into  several 
unnecessary  controversies,  and  his  mission  seemed  to  be 


GUAYAQUIL  AND  THE  ISTHJMUS  221 

destined  to  failure.  The  intervention  of  the  Bishop  of 
Panama  and  the  clerical  party  rescued  him  from  defeat. 
A  most  influential  deputation,  headed  by  the  Bishop, 
visited  President  Nunez  at  Cartagena  and  pleaded  for 
the  extension  of  the  construction  privileges.  The  coast 
district,  which  had  supplied  cattle  for  the  canal  labor- 
ers, also  lifted  up  its  voice  in  support  of  the  French 
Company's  appeal.  Dr.  Nunez  ascertained  that  public 
opinion  in  Panama  and  the  four  adjacent  States  was 
setting  strongly  in  favor  of  a  renewal  of  the  Company's 
privileges.  The  Bishop  of  Panama  convinced  him  that 
it  would  be  hazardous  for  him  to  reject  the  appeal  of 
the  Isthmus.  He  decided  to  reverse  his  policy  and  to 
revise  the  contract  with  the  French  Company.  The 
deputies  of  the  National  Congress,  who  had  previously 
been  instructed  to  vote  against  the  extension  of  con- 
struction privileges,  were  informed  of  the  President's 
change  of  base,  and,  after  a  little  diplomatic  by-play, 
the  new  canal  agreement  was  negotiated.  Lieutenant 
Wyse  returned  in  triumph  to  Panama  and  was  the  hero 
of  the  town. 

The  agreement,  while  it  conceded  an  extension  of 
time  for  the  completion  of  the  canal,  was  a  very  shrewd 
bargain  on  the  part  of  Colombia.  The  main  point 
which  Dr.  Nunez  was  determined  to  secure  was  the 
avoidance  of  legal  controversy  whenever  the  time 
should  come  for  the  establishment  of  the  Government's 
ownership  of  the  work.  An  extension  of  ten  years 
was  granted,  subject  to  the  condition  that  a  new  com- 
pany should  be  organized  not  later  than  February  28th, 
1893,  with  sufficient  capital  to  resume  work  "  in  a 
serious  and  regular  manner."  If  work  were  not  begun 
within  the  term  agreed  upon  the   contract  would  be 


222  TEOPICAL   AMERICA 

void,  and  the  Republic  would  enter  into  full  possession 
and  ownership  of  the  work,  plant,  and  property  without 
the  necessity  of  judicial  proceedings,  and  without  the 
payment  of  any  indemnity  for  the  canal.  The  contract 
would  be  invalidated  on  the  same  terms  before  Feb- 
ruar}'  28th,  1893,  if  the  liquidator  should  cease  to  pro- 
tect the  works,  materials,  and  buildings,  or  if  the  corps 
of  employes  were  withdrawn,  or  the  money  required 
for  monthly  disbursements  withheld.  It  was  stipulated 
that  the  buildings,  materials,  works,  and  improvements 
should  be  delivered  in  good  condition  to  the  Govern- 
ment, if  work  on  the  canal  were  not  resumed  with 
adequate  capital  within  two  years.  By  these  specifica- 
tions the  giound  was  cleared  for  the  transfer  of  the 
property  to  Colombia  without  litigation  and  without 
indemnity,  if  the  French  company  should  be  unable  to 
raise  additional  capital  and  to  resume  work  on  the 
canal  before  February  28th,  1893.  All  complications 
with  the  French  Government  would  be  avoided,  and 
President  Nuiiez  would  be  enabled  to  open  negotiations 
with  an  American  or  an  English  syndicate  for  the  com- 
pletion of  the  canal  on  the  basis  of  the  payment  of  the 
Colombian  national  debt.  The  government  mortgage 
on  the  property  would  be  virtually  based  upon  a  quit- 
claim deed  signed  by  Lieutenant  Wyse  as  the  agent  of 
the  liquidator  of  the  bankrupt  company.  Instead  of 
taking  possession  of  the  work  on  March  3d,  1892,  with 
litigation  in  the  courts  and  revolution  in  the  air,  the 
President  agreed  to  wait  another  year  in  order  to 
acquire  absolute  ownership  of  the  canal  property  with- 
out legal  controversy  and  without  political  resistance. 

The  Panama  Canal  will  ultimately  be  in  the  market 
and  will  be  open  for  competitive   bids  from  London, 


GUAYAQUIL   AND    THE   ISTHMUS  223 

New  York,  and  Berlin,  if  the  French  company  fail  to 
raise  $100,000,000  for  the  prosecution  of  the  work. 
That  is  a  comprehensive  statement  of  the  situation. 
If  the  French  Company  can  be  reorganized  the  Colom- 
bian Government  by  the  new  agreement  obtains  satis- 
factory guarantees  for  the  maintenance  of  an  adequate 
garrison  along  the  line  of  the  canal,  and  for  ample 
pecuniary  compensations  for  its  services  in  obtaining 
the  expropriation  of  lands,  buildings,  and  plantations 
required  for  the  work.  The  Government  has  made  a 
hard  bargain  with  the  bankrupt  company,  and  its  inter- 
ests are  protected  whether  the  final  desperate  effort  to 
revive  the  project  under  the  existing  management  be 
successful  or  otherwise.  The  question  of  finishing  the 
canal  rests  with  French  investors.  With  |2G5,000,000 
in  hard  cash  sunk  in  this  famous  ditch,  they  can  hardly 
have  the  heart  to  pledge  themselves  to  raise  $100,000,000 
more  without  having  definite  assurance  that  when  that 
amount  has  been  expended  another  $50,000,000  or  $100,- 
000,000  will  not  be  required  for  the  completion  of  the 
work. 


XII 
CARTAGENA  AND  CARACAS 

THE     CHIEF     FORTRESS     OF    THE    SPANISH    MAIN  HOME     OF 

PRESIDENT    NUNEZ THE    COLOMBIAN    TRAVESTY    OF    RE- 
PUBLICAN   GOVERNMENT VENEZUELAN    COAST    TOWNS  

AMERICAN     COMMERCIAL     ENTERPRISE BIRTHPLACE     OF 

BOLIVAR REVOLT   AGAINST   GUZMAN   BLANCO A    PRESI- 
DENTIAL   INAUGURATION    AT    CARACAS 

As  Panama  was  the  stronghold  of  the  Conquistadores 
on  the  Pacific,  and  tlie  common  base  of  operations  for 
the  conquest  of  Peru  and  the  settlement  of  Central 
America,  so  Cartagena  was  the  main  fortress  of  the 
Spanish  Main.  The  harbor  is  a  capacious  one,  but  is 
approached  by  a  narrow  and  circuitous  passage,  the 
main  entrance  having  been  obstructed  many  years  ago 
in  defensive  operations  against  an  English  fleet.  The 
steamer  in  entering  the  harbor  passed  between  a  crumb- 
ling battery  on  shore  and  a  bristling  little  fort  on  an 
island.  A  broad  lagoon  commanded  by  a  series  of  land 
batteries  opened  before  the  eye,  and  in  the  distance  lay 
the  walled  town  from  which  old  Spain  received  the 
proudest  of  its  fleets  of  galleons,  and  upon  which  it 
expended  -f50,000,000  of  treasure  in  the  attempt  to 
render  it  an  impregnable  fortress.  The  old  city  was 
built  upon  an  island,  and  surrounded  with  ramparts  of 
masonry  from  forty  to  fifty  feet  in  thickness.  These 
massive  fortifications  were  pierced  with  embrasures  for 
224 


CARTAGENA  AND  CARACAS  225 

guns  and  with  stone  turrets  for  sentinels  at  regular 
intervals.  Probably  these  defences  were  never  as 
formidable  as  they  looked,  for  the  buccaneers  were  not 
afraid  to  run  into  the  harbor,  and  the  French  and 
English  carried  the  town  by  storm  on  the  only  occasions 
when  it  was  regularly  besieged.  Cartagena  remains, 
however,  almost  the  only  memorial  in  the  New  World 
of  the  military  science  of  the  Spanish  era  of  conquest. 
Its  ramparts  were  built  for  all  time.  Few  cities  in 
Tropical  America  have  retained  the  antique  character- 
istics of  the  Spanish  conquest.  Rio  de  Janeiro  has  its 
musty  churches,  Cordova  is  the  most  mediaeval  town 
in  the  Plate  countries,  and  Lima  and  Panama  have  the 
oldest  architecture  on  the  West  Coast;  but  each  has 
been  modernized,  and  has  renewed  its  youth  in  florid 
French  buildings,  and  the  glare  of  electric  light.  Car- 
tagena remains  what  it  has  always  been,  —  an  antique 
fortress.  Two  hills,  Popa  and  San  Felipe,  tower  above 
it  with  fortifications  and  churches.  A  shallow  canal 
connects  it  with  the  Magdalena.  The  city  is  filled  with 
old  churches  and  musty  ruins,  is  ill-paved,  neglected, 
and  unimproved;  but  it  is  one  of  the  most  picturesque 
towns  in  Spanish  America. 

Cartagena  is  virtually  the  centre  of  political  power  in 
Colombia,  for  it  is  the  residence  of  President  Nunez,  a 
dictator  without  the  name.  Before  the  revolution  of 
1885,  during  which  Colon  was  burned  and  the  Panama 
Railway  protected  by  American  marines,  the  States 
enjoyed  a  large  measure  of  home  rule.  The  insurgents 
who  were  defeated  in  that  struggle  were  Radicals  and  ad- 
vanced Liberals.  They  were  making  a  stand  against  cen- 
tralized government,  and  they  were  overthrown.  When 
the  followers  of  Dr.  Nunez  were  victorious,  they  trans- 


226  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

formed  the  constitutional  system  of  the  country.  States 
which  had  formerly  elected  their  own  presidents,  or 
governors,  were  reduced  to  the  level  of  departments  and 
ruled  by  partisans  sent  out  from  Bogota.  Under  the  Rio 
Necrro  Constitution  of  1863,  each  State  had  been  allowed 
to  organize  and  equip  its  own  military  forces.  Under  the 
Constitution  of  1886  this  privilege  was  revoked,  and  the 
supremacy  of  the  national  government  was  established 
with  the  aid  of  a  standing  army  under  its  own  control. 
The  Liberals  who  had  triumphed  under  the  leadership 
of  Mosquera  had  established  religious  liberty  and 
ordered  confiscations  of  ecclesiastical  property.  The 
Conservatives  who  were  victorious  in  1885,  restored 
many  of  these  churches,  and  voted  a  large  compensation 
fund  for  property  which  had  been  sold.  The  Liberal 
marriage  laws  were  revised.  The  schools  were  brought 
under  the  influence  of  the  clergy  and  many  reactionary 
measures  were  enacted.  Dr.  Nunez,  who  had  entered 
public  life  as  a  Radical  agitator,  swung  completely 
around  the  circle.  As  the  leader  of  the  National  party 
he  became  the  ally  of  Clericalism,  and  the  defender  of 
ecclesiastical  privilege.  Being  a  man  of  unrivalled 
capacity  for  directing  public  affairs  and  enforcing  party 
discipline,  he  has  established  a  highly  centralized  mili- 
tary government  without  incurring  unpopularity  by 
remaining  constantly  in  sight  and  openly  exercising 
authority.  He  has  been  successful  in  maintaining 
peace,  in  repressing  revolutionary  tendencies,  and  in 
introducing  financial  reforms  and  public  works.  Strong 
government  has  not  been  without  its  advantages ;  but 
the  system  can  hardly  be  considered  either  republican 
or  democratic. 

When  I  returned  to  tlie  Isthmus  in  1891,  the  farce  of 


CARTAGENA  AND  CARACAS  227 

electing  a  President  by  popular  vote  was  in  course  of 
preparation.  Dr.  Nuiiez  was  the  candidate  of  two 
factions  of  the  Conservative  party,  each  of  whom  had 
its  own  leader  in  training  for  the  vice-Presidency.  One 
of  them  was  Dr.  Caro,  who  had  been  the  author  of  the 
Constitution  of  1886.  The  other  was  General  Velez,  a 
brave  soldier  and  successful  department  administrator. 
Dr.  Nunez  proclaimed  his  neutrality  in  this  contest  for 
several  months ;  but  finally  withdrew  his  support  from 
the  Velez  faction,  making  Dr.  Caro  the  official  candidate 
for  vice-President.  The  Velez  committee  at  once 
nominated  their  leader  for  the  Presidency  against  Dr. 
Nuiiez,  and  brought  another  candidate  into  the  field  for 
the  vice-Presidency.  If  the  elections  on  December  5th, 
1891,  had  been  free.  General  Velez  would  have  been 
elected  with  the  aid  of  the  Liberals ;  but  the  superior 
resources  of  the  government  secured  the  reelection  of 
President  Nuiiez. 

Of  all  the  travesties  of  popular  government  which 
have  been  witnessed  in  Spanish  America,  the  political 
play  enacted  in  Bogotd,  and  Cartagena  is  the  most 
grotesque.  Dr.  Nunez  is  known  as  the  titular  President 
of  the  Republic.  His  practice  is  to  go  to  the  capital  at 
the  beginning  of  the  presidential  term,  and  when  he  has 
taken  the  oath  of  office  to  remain  there  for  a  few  weeks 
until  all  matters  of  policy  and  discipline  are  arranged 
among  his  followers.  He  then  retires  to  his  country- 
seat  in  Cartagena,  leaving  the  vice-President  to  bear  the 
burdens  of  state.  The  more  servile  the  follower  whom 
he  places  in  that  office  the  greater  will  be  the  titular 
President's  feeling  of  security  in  enjoying  the  retire- 
ment of  his  home.  A  vice-President  with  policies  and 
ambitions  of  his  own  will  inevitably  revolt  against  the 


228  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

dictatorship.  President  Nunez  is  very  careful  to  select 
a  candidate  upon  whose  fidelity  and  humility  he  can 
depend.  So  absolute  is  government  control  over  elec- 
tions that  the  official  candidate  is  always  elected,  or  at 
least  counted  in.  The  vice-President  is  the  industrious 
public  functionary,  who  receives  deputations,  makes 
compromises  with  political  factions,  and  directs  the 
business  of  the  State.  Relieved  of  all  official  drudgery 
the  President  exercises  supreme  power  without  emerging 
from  retirement.  Dr.  Nuilez  has  mastered  the  art  of 
governing  a  nation  with  luxurious  ease. 

The  Spanish  Main  opening  eastward  from  Cartagena 
and  the  Magdalena  ports  is  a  grand  mountainous  coast. 
The  maritime  range  is  virtually  a  continuation  of  the 
Andean  system,  with  a  change  of  axis  from  North  and 
South  to  West  and  East.  As  Santa  Marta  is  passed 
the  glittering  peaks  of  the  majestic  Sierra  Nevada  are 
seen  a  long  way  inland.  Here  was  once  a  strongly  for- 
tified centre  of  Spanish  wealth  and  power ;  but  the  im- 
portance of  the  town  has  shrunk  decade  after  decade 
until  it  is  now  a  neglected  cluster  of  hovels  remarkable 
only  for  its  melancholy  reminiscences  of  the  great  Lib- 
erator, Bolivar,  whose  last  breath  was  drawn  in  one 
of  its  crumbling  adobe  ruins.  The  mountains  recede 
and  finally  disappear  as  the  rocky  headland  of  Vela  is 
approached.  This  cape  with  the  companion  promon- 
tory of  Gallinas  was  the  landmark  of  the  earliest  voy- 
ages of  Spanish  discovery.  It  was  the  farthest  western 
headland  sighted  by  the  aspiring  book-writer  after  whom 
a  continent  was  named.  It  marked  the  limit  of  the  con- 
cession granted  to  Las  Casas  by  the  Spanish  court,  when 
that  humane  and  noble  pioneer  undertook  to  found  an 
empire  on  principles  of  justice  and  in  a  spirit  of  good-will 


CARTAGENA  AND  CARACAS  229 

to  native  races.  It  is  the  coast  boundary  between  Colom- 
bia and  Venezuela,  two  rich  but  undeveloped  countries, 
where  the  revolt  against  Spanish  domain  began  with  a 
victorious  struggle  and  patriotic  constancy.  Beyond  it 
lies  the  broad  Gulf  of  Venezuela,  and  then  from  Cape 
St.  Roman  eastward  the  coast  is  guarded  by  a  continu- 
ous mountain  range. 

Venezuela  may  be  roughly  described  as  a  triangle, 
with  nearly  equal  sides,  one  of  which  is  a  coast  line  of 
1500  miles,  another  an  irregular  frontier  running  south 
from  Cape  Vela  into  the  heart  of  the  continent,  and  the 
third  an  Andean  chain  parallel  with  the  maritime  range. 
Within  these  lines  is  embraced  an  area  of  632,695  square 
miles,  where  room  for  three  Germanies  could  be  found. 
The  mountainous  coast  belt  is  the  only  one  which  is 
under  cultivation  and  inhabited  by  whites.  Out  of  a 
total  population  of  2,250,000  considerably  more  than 
2,000,000  is  centred  in  the  seven  States  bordering  upon 
the  sea.  The  cultivated  belt  has  an  average  breadth  of 
seventy  miles  except  at  Lake  Maracaibo  where  it  is  over 
100  miles.  Beyond  this  area  of  population  and  agri- 
culture there  is  a  broad  pastoral  or  grazing  belt  extend- 
ing to  the  Orinoco,  and  back  of  this  there  is  a  forest 
region  of  great  mineral  wealth,  but  thinly  populated, 
and,  in  the  main,  unexplored.  Venezuela  was  the  first 
country  on  the  mainland  discovered  by  Columbus ;  but 
it  is  among  the  last  in  the  order  of  industrial  develop- 
ment. It  is  known  to  be  rich  in  gold,  copper,  iron,  coal, 
and  timber ;  it  has  in  the  Orinoco  Valley  facilities  for 
rivalling  the  Argentine  and  Southern  Brazil  as  a  graz- 
ing country;  and  it  has  a  coffee  tract  unequalled  in 
fertility.  Under  stable  and  progressive  conditions  of 
government  during  the  last  twenty  years,  it  has    been 


230  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

doubling  the  volume  of  its  foreign  trade.  With  railway 
construction  and  irrigation  on  a  large  scale,  it  could  be 
converted  into  the  most  prosperous  State  in  South 
America. 

Opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Gulf  of  Venezuela  lies  the 
picturesque  island  of  Cura9ao,  with  its  quaint  capital, 
Willemsted,  protected  by  two  antiquated  forts.  This 
was  taken  from  the  Spanish  by  the  Dutch  in  1630,  and 
has  remained  in  their  possession  witli  two  adjacent 
islands.  Those  thrifty  pioneers  of  European  trade  did 
not  aim  to  colonize  the  New  World,  so  much  as  to  carry 
on  illicit  commerce  with  the  settlements  of  more  power- 
ful nations.  Curasao  was  admirably  adapted  as  a  slave 
mart  and  a  smuggling  centre,  and  until  the  end  of  the 
Napoleonic  wars  it  was  a  rich  and  prosperous  island.  It 
still  retains,  with  its  gables  and  pitched  roofs,  character- 
istic aspects  of  a  Dutch  colony ;  but  its  industries  have 
declined,  even  the  famous  cordial  known  by  its  name 
being  now  prepared  in  Holland  from  orange  rind,  limes, 
and  spices  obtained  in  the  West  Indies.  CuraQao  as  a  free 
port  has  become  the  centre  of  an  American  steamship 
line's  operations  on  the  Venezuela  coast.  The  island  is 
practically  a  bonded  warehouse  which  is  of  great  service 
in  promoting  the  interests  of  American  trade,  since 
goods  not  required  for  immediate  sale  in  Venezuela  can 
be  stored  there.  Coro,  with  its  port  of  La  Vela,  has  a 
population  of  10,000  and  a  large  export  trade  in  coffee, 
skins,  and  dyewoods.  Maracaibo  lies  at  the  entrance  to 
a  beautiful  but  shallow  lagoon  navigable  only  for  ves- 
sels of  light  draught.  It  has  a  population  of  40,000,  and 
is  the  centre  of  a  rapidly  increasing  trade  in  coffee,  hides, 
and  dyewoods,  being  the  outlet  for  the  commerce  of  a 
large  section  of  Colombia  as  well  as  for  the  mountain- 


CARTAGENA  AND  CAKACAS  231 

ous  region  south  of  the  lake.  The  bulk  of  the  exports 
to  the  American  market  goes  from  this  section  of  Vene- 
zuela, the  shipments  of  coffee  alone  varying  between 
15,000,000  and  16,500,000  annually. 

The  low  valleys  on  the  Venezuelan  coast  are  preemi- 
nently adapted  for  the  cultivation  of  sugar  and  cacao, 
and  the  high  table-lands  among  the  mountains  for  coffee 
farming.  No  sugar  is  exported,  the  processes  of  manu- 
facture being  primitive,  and  barely  enough  being  pro- 
duced for  the  home  market  and  for  the  distillation  of 
cheap  rum  for  the  natives.  Cacao  is  after  coffee  the 
great  agricultural  staple.  France  and  Germany  are  the 
chief  markets  for  cacao,  which  is  of  the  finest  quality 
produced  in  South  America,  ranking  with  that  of 
Ecuador.  The  productive  zone  for  coffee  begins  at  an 
elevation  of  1,500  feet  above  the  sea.  The  mountain 
slopes  behind  Lake  Maracaibo  and  in  the  valleys  of 
Caracas  and  Valencia  are  the  best  districts.  Venezuela 
is  already  producing  90,000,000  pounds  of  coffee  a  year, 
and  is,  after  Brazil,  the  greatest  storehouse  for  the  Ameri- 
can market.  The  coffee  belt  is  large  enough  to  supply 
the  whole  American  market,  if  it  can  be  brought  under 
systematic  cultivation,  and  if  adequate  railway  transpor- 
tation can  be  provided.  This  is  now  the  chief  disadvan- 
tage under  which  Venezuela  labors  in  competing  with 
Brazil,  where  railways  traverse  the  coffee  zones,  and 
carry  the  product  from  the  farms  to  the  warehouses  and 
wharves  in  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  Santos.  The  comj)letion 
of  the  railways  between  Caracas  and  Valencia,  and 
between  Lake  Maracaibo  and  Mdrida  and  other  moun- 
tain towns,  will  be  required  before  the  coffee  production 
of  Venezuela  can  be  adequately  developed.  The  few 
railways  now  in  operation  are  not  built  with  reference 


232  TROPICAL    AMERICA 

to  the  transportation  of  coffee,  which  is  brought  to  the 
coast  mainly  on  the  backs  of  mules. 

Puerto  Cabello  is,  after  Maracaibo,  the  most  populous 
port  in  Venezuela,  and  is  connected  by  railway  with 
Valencia,  the  second  city.  The  port  is  crescent-shaped, 
but  has  an  inner  lagoon  which  with  proper  engineering 
works  could  be  converted  into  a  safe  and  commodious 
harbor.  All  the  coasting  steamers  call  at  this  port, 
which  has  a  large  trade  in  coffee,  cacao,  copper,  fruits, 
dye  woods,  and  hides.  The  finest  fruit  region  in  Vene- 
zuela is  the  mountainous  region  back  of  Puerto  Cabello. 
La  Guayra  is  the  most  important  port,  although  it  is 
an  insignificant  town  with  a  population  of  9,000.  The 
harbor  when  I  entered  it  was  an  unprotected  roadstead, 
with  a  high  and  dangerous  surf ;  but  the  subsequent 
completion  of  the  English  port  works  has  greatly 
improved  it.  The  town  lies  on  a  narrow  shingle  of 
beach  at  the  base  of  a  precipitous  mountain  range 
sloping  abruptly  toward  the  sea.  There  are  clusters  of 
houses  in  ravines  above  the  shore  line  ;  but  nature  has 
interposed  insuperable  obstacles  to  the  growth  of  the 
town.  The  shelving  shore  is  so  narrow,  and  the  hill- 
sides are  so  steep,  that  La  Guayra  must  ever  remain  a 
port  of  limited  population.  Its  trade  will  always  be 
large,  because  Caracas  lies  behind  the  mountains  at  a 
distance  of  ten  miles  in  an  air  line.  A  railway  about 
twice  as  long  connects  the  capital  with  its  port.  The 
engineers  in  their  eagerness  to  avoid  tunnelling  have 
made  the  railway  needlessly  circuitous,  and  have  largely 
increased  the  expense  of  keeping  it  open  during  the 
season  of  land-slides.  After  heavy  rains  the  road-bed 
is  frequently  impassable  for  several  days  and  traffic  is 
obstructed  for  weeks.     Bolder  engineers  of  the  Meiggs 


CARTAGENA  AND  CARACAS  233 

type  would  have  chosen  a  more  direct  route,  constructed 
more  tunnels,  and  diminished  the  liability  to  obstruction 
from  landslides.  The  railway  is  poorly  built  and 
equipped  in  comparison  with  the  Peruvian  lines.  It 
offers  rare  attractions  to  sight-seers,  the  marine  vistas 
from  the  mountain  slopes  being  magnificent.  At  Cara- 
cas there  are  three  short  railways  leading  to  adjacent 
villages.  The  coffee  and  cacao  collected  by  these  lines, 
and  by  mule  trails  in  the  mountains,  are  shipped  from 
La  Guayra.  The  bulk  of  the  foreign  importations  is 
also  brought  into  the  roadstead  for  distribution  through- 
out Venezuela. 

With  American,  Spanish,  Dutch,  and  German  lines 
running  between  La  Guayra  and  New  York,  and  with 
two  English  lines  calling  in  the  roadstead  on  their  way 
to  New  Orleans,  there  are  ample  facilities  for  rapid 
steam  communication  with  American  ports.  Mails  are 
received  every  ten  days  from  the  North  Atlantic  States, 
and  merchandise  can  be  ordered  more  promptly  from 
New  York  than  from  Liverpool.  Freights  are  low  in 
consequence  of  sharp  competition  betAveen  four  steam- 
ship lines.  With  shorter  lines  of  ocean  transportation 
to  New  York  than  to  Hamburg,  Havre,  or  Liverpool, 
Americans  have  a  marked  advantage  in  trade  and  are 
profiting  by  it.  Venezuela  is  the  only  South  American 
country  where  the  shipping  of  the  United  States  makes 
a  favorable  exhibit  in  comparison  with  that  of  mari- 
time Europe.  No  steamer  under  the  American  flag  is 
ever  seen  in  the  ports  of  Uruguay,  the  Argentine, 
Chili,  and  Peru.  A  few  sailing  vessels  alone  compete 
in  those  waters  for  a  carrying  trade,  which  has  been 
expanded  many  times  during  the  last  twenty  years  by 
the    multiplication    of    European    steamship    lines.     In 


234  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

Venezuelan    ports    the    American    flag    is    constantly 
seen. 

Since  1879  the  Red  D.  steamers  have  made  voyages 
regularly  between  New  York  and  the  Spanish  Main. 
These  steamers  were  built  by  New  York  merchants, 
who  had  established  a  remunerative  trade  with  Vene- 
zuela by  means  of  sailing  vessels.  They  felt  the 
pressure  of  competition,  and  met  it  in  the  old-time 
spirit  of  American  maritime  enterprise.  They  now 
have  steamers  and  tenders  admirably  adapted  for  the 
requirements  of  passenger  and  freight  traffic.  There  is 
rapid  steam  communication  under  the  flag  and  there 
is  American  energy  on  shore.  The  conditions  have 
been  favorable  for  the  development  of  American  com- 
merce. The  impoits  to  the  United  States  have  in- 
creased from  $>1,917,315  in  1869  to  110,966,765  in  1890. 
During  the  same  period  the  exports  from  American 
ports  have  expanded  from  $806,540  to  .13,984,280.  No 
European  country  exceeds  the  United  States  in  ex- 
ports, although  England  is  not  far  behind  it,  while 
taking  only  one-eighth  as  much  Venezuelan  produce. 
The  balance  of  trade  is  against  the  United  States,  be- 
cause every  product  of  Venezuela  is  admitted  in  Ameri- 
can ports  without  payment  of  duties,  whereas  flour  is 
taxed  110  per  cent  in  return,  and  every  other  staple 
and  manufacture  almost  as  heavily.  Even  a  moderate 
reduction  of  the  duty  on  flour  would  double  the  im- 
ports received  from  American  ports.  Flour  commands 
an  exorbitant  price,  and  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
poor  and  laboring  classes.  When  the  cost  of  bread  is 
exceptionally  high  the  tariff  is  suspended  temporarily 
by  executive  degree,  but  as  soon  as  the  market  is  well 
stocked  the  duties  are  restored.     Everything  is  taxed 


CARTAGENA  AND  CARACAS  235 

and  the  burdens  fall  heavily  upon  the  people.  The 
tariff  on  food  products  is  maintained,  because  the  gov- 
erning classes  consider  this  one  of  the  most  effective 
methods  of  raising  revenue  and  increasing  their  oppor- 
tunities for  controlling  expenditures. 

I  reached  Caiacas  from  La  Guayra  after  two  days' 
detention  caused  by  landslides  which  blocked  the  rail- 
way. Lying  in  a  fertile  and  well-watered  valley,  flanked 
by  lofty  mountains,  it  is  a  city  of  great  scenic  beauty. 
Rivers  and  brooks  run  through  it  and  there  are  numer- 
ous 'bridges  of  iron,  masonry,  and  wood.  In  this  way 
the  capital  feebly  supports  the  character  of  the  country 
assigned  by  Amerigo  Vespucci's  companions,  when,  after 
a  glimpse  of  the  villages  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Mara- 
caibo,  they  gave  to  it  the  fantastic  name  of  Little 
Venice.  Caracas  is  a  genuine  Spanish-American  capi- 
tal with  characteristics  of  its  own.  It  is  a  city  with  a 
population  of  70,000,  abounding  in  evidences  of  refine- 
ment of  taste  and  lucidity  of  intelligence. 

The  Capitol  comprises  two  great  buildings  with  Ionic 
fronts,  the  halls  of  Congress,  and  the  Executive  Man- 
sion known  as  the  Yellow  House.  The  material  may 
be  brick  covered  with  stucco,  and  the  buildings  may  be 
low  structures  of  a  single  story;  but  the  lines  of  the 
architecture  are  chaste,  and  broad  avenues  surround 
them  on  four  sides.  The  houses  of  Congress  are  very 
bare  ;  but  there  is  a  well  furnished  reception-room  in 
the  Executive  Mansion,  with  a  large  collection  of  por- 
traits of  national  heroes  and  statesmen.  Opposite  the 
Capitol  is  the  Gothic  front  of  the  University  of  Vene- 
zuela, with  inner  courts  decorated  with  statues,  and  a 
national  library  in  the  rear.  The  Bolivar  Plaza  is  a 
bright  and  artistic  centre  of  life  in  the  heart  of   the 


236  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

city,  and  has  a  large  and  spirited  equestrian  statue  of 
Bolivar,  perhaps  the  best  work  of  sculpture  to  be 
seen  in  South  America.  The  catliedral  is  a  crumbling 
pile,  suggesting  that  the  earthquake  which  destroyed 
the  town,  in  1812,  spared  this  one  building ;  but  there 
are  fine  churches  in  Caracas,  St.  Anne's  Basilic  being  the 
most  elaborate  in  design,  and  St.  Francisco  one  of  the 
newest.  The  National  Pantheon  is  a  sombre  church  at 
the  northern  end  of  the  city ;  but  it  contains,  where  was 
once  the  altar,  Bolivar's  dust  under  white  marble  and 
a  statue  of  the  Liberator,  with  numerous  emblematic 
figures  and  memorial  tablets.  The  streets  are  narrow 
but  well-paved  and  lighted.  There  are  ten  squares 
containing  monuments  to  heroes.  The  shops  are  at- 
tractive bazaars ;  the  central  market  has  a  pretty  little 
park  beside  it ;  and  there  are  signs  of  bustle  and  activ- 
ity everywhere.  Caracas  resembles  Lima  without  be- 
ing mediasval  in  appearance.  It  has  been  modernized, 
without  being  completely  Europeanized,  like  many  of 
the  Spanish-American  cities. 

A  viaduct  connecting  Calvary  Chapel  with  the  Guzman 
Blanco  Promenade  is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  public 
works.  This  beautiful  pleasure-ground  is  in  the  heart 
of  the  city  like  St.  Lucia  in  Santiago,  and  it  is  a  lovely 
and  artistic  public  garden,  with  carriage  roads  and  foot 
paths,  and  a  stately  approach  by  broad  stone  stairways. 
A  terraced  park  on  a  hillside  500  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  streets,  it  commands  broad  prospects  of  the  city, 
valley,  and  mountains.  With  its  thickets  of  bamboos,  its 
clumps  of  mangoes  and  palms,  and  its  fountains,  rose 
beds  and  parterres  of  flowers,  it  bears  evidence  to  the 
refinement  of  taste  for  which  Venezuelans  are  conspic- 
uous.    The  Bolivar    monument   has  its  border  of  for- 


CARTAGENA  AND  CARACAS  237 

get-me-iiot ;  every  plaza  has  an  artistic  arrangement  of 
flower-beds  and  shrubbery  ;  the  architecture  of  the  town 
is  singuhirly  chaste  and  simple.  What  is  lacking  in 
Venezuela  is  not  delicacy  of  taste  but  the  robust  fibre 
of  civic  virtue. 

The  capital  of  Venezuela  has  the  crowning  glory  of 
being  the  birthplace  of  Bolivar,  the  cradle  of  South 
American  liberty.  It  reverences  his  memory.  His 
dust  is  buried  in  its  Pantheon.  His  statue  is  in  its  cen- 
tral plaza.  Memorials  of  his  patriotism  and  genius  are 
seen  on  every  side.  Every  coin  passing  from  hand  to 
hand  in  the  daily  traffic  of  the  city  bears  his  image  and 
superscription.  Cardcas  is  the  city  of  the  Liberator. 
Alas !  the  traditions  of  his  fame  have  not  protected  it 
against  political  usurpation  and  wretched  travesties  of 
civil  liberty  and  republican  government. 

The  Venezuelan  Constitution  is  modelled  after  the 
American  Constitution,  with  modifications  grounded 
upon  the  Calhoun  doctrine  of  State  rights.  The  con- 
federation consists  of  eight  States,  which  are  supreme 
and  coordinate  in  their  sovereign  rights.  The  National 
Government  represents,  not  the  people,  but  the  States. 
The  Congress  comprises  two  houses,  one  elected  on  the 
basis  of  population,  and  the  other  consisting  of  senators 
chosen  by  the  legislatures,  three  from  each  State.  This 
Congress  elects  a  Federal  Council  once  in  two  years,  a 
senator  and  a  deputy  from  each  State  delegation,  and 
one  additional  deputy  from  the  federal  district.  This 
Council  of  seventeen  chooses  a  President  of  the  Repub- 
lic for  two  years.  It  is  in  no  sense  a  popular  election. 
The  representatives  of  the  eight  States  select  the 
National  Executive,  and  remain  in  office  during  his 
term.     Neither  they  nor  he  can  be  elected  for  the  next 


238  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

term.  The  States  have  nominally  retained  full  sover- 
eign authority,  in  order  to  protect  themselves  against 
usurpations  of  power,  and  the  evils  of  centralized  gov- 
ernment. 

For  all  practical  purposes  Caracas  is  Venezuela  in 
matters  of  government  and  legislation.  The  political 
cabals  have  ruled,  and  there  has  been  centralized  admin- 
istration of  an  extreme  type.  The  cherished  doctrine  of 
State  rights  has  been  constantly  nullified  by  the  appoint- 
ment as  provincial  representatives  of  men  who  have 
never  lived  outside  Cardcas.  All  the  evils  of  irrespon- 
sible and  highly  centralized  power  have  arisen  under  a 
constitutional  system  theoretically  designed  to  promote 
the  largest  development  of  State  rights.  After  1829, 
when  the  Republic  of  Colombia,  whose  independence 
had  been  won  by  the  victories  of  Bolivar  and  Paez,  was 
divided  into  three  States,  Venezuela  passed  through  an 
exhausting  period  of  military  dictatorship  and  civil  war. 
In  1869  opened  an  era  of  peace  and  progress  under  the 
political  domination  of  General  Guzman  Blanco.  For 
twenty  years,  whether  he  was  the  head  of  a  Provisional 
Government  established  by  force  of  arms,  or  the  consti- 
tutional Executive,  or  Minister  to  France,  his  will  was 
the  supreme  force  in  the  State.  When  not  occupying 
the  Presidential  office,  he  controlled  the  administration 
through  candidates  of  his  own,  nominated  and  elected 
by  his  command.  With  all  the  vices  of  irresponsi- 
ble power  were  joined  many  of  the  virtues  of  enlight- 
ened government.  He  suppressed  Clericalism  and 
established  genuine  religious  liberty.  He  built  rail- 
ways, improved  the  public  roads,  and  adorned  the  cities 
with  stately  edifices,  beautiful  pleasure-grounds,  and 
French  statuary.     He    developed    the   industries   and 


CARTAGENA  AND  CARACAS  239 

commerce  of  the  country,  and  promoted  its  prosperity 
by  a  policy  at  once  strong  and  pacific.  It  was  a  system 
of  political  absolutism  by  which  the  government  was 
virtually  reduced  to  the  level  of  military  dictatorship. 
A  reaction  against  it  was  inevitable  in  the  liberty-loving 
country  of  Bolivar,  a  land  which  led  the  way  in  the 
revolt  against  Spanish  tyranny. 

The  signal  for  a  political  revolution  was  raised  by 
university  students  in  October,  1889.  They  began 
operations  by  flinging  stones  at  a  statue  of  Guzman 
Blanco  in  Caracas.  Within  twenty-four  hours  the 
statue  was  pulled  down  by  a  mob  and  broken  into 
fragments.  Another  statue  of  the  Dictator  was  de- 
stroyed  in  the  capital,  and  a  third  was  knocked  down 
and  mutilated  in  La  Guayra.  The  numerous  tablets 
and  inscriptions  which  commemorated  his  achievements 
and  public  services  in  grandiose  phrases  were  defaced 
or  wrenched  from  their  fastenings.  Oil  paintings  of 
the  Dictator  were  forcibly  removed  from  the  art  gal- 
leries and  other  indignities  were  offered.  It  was  a 
singularly  effective  revolution,  wrought  without  blood- 
shed or  excitement. 

This  political  movement  was  successful  because  Guz- 
man Blanco  was  in  Paris,  and  his  personal  representa- 
tive in  the  executive  office  was  not  disposed  to  resent 
public  affronts  to  his  patron.  The  President,  Dr.  Rojas 
Paul,  was  a  wise  and  discreet  man.  He  had  been  car- 
ried into  the  executive  office  through  the  influence  of 
the  Dictator ;  but  when  once  installed  he  began  to  think 
and  act  for  himself.  Probably  he  was  weary  of  consult- 
ing the  real  ruler  of  Venezuela  by  cable  at  every  turn 
of  public  affairs.  Having  watched  the  tendencies  of 
popular  thought,  he  perceived  that  the  supremacy  of  the 


240  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

vainglorious  Dictator  would  not  be  tolerated  longer. 
He  made  arrangements  for  carrying  the  work  of  the 
statue-breakers  to  its  logical  results.  He  reorganized 
his  Cabinet  so  as  to  exclude  several  of  the  devoted 
partisans  of  Guzman  Blanco,  and  brought  Dr.  Anduesa 
Palacio  into  the  field  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency. 
When  the  Dictator  resigned  his  post  as  Minister  to 
France  a  successor  was  promptly  appointed.  The  bien- 
nial election  was  controlled  by  the  opponents  of  the 
political  cabal  which  had  governed  Venezuela  for 
twenty  years.  Anduesa  who  had  been  a  member  of  the 
Cabinet  was  chosen  by  the  Federal  Council  as  the  new 
President. 

On  March  19th,  1890,  I  witnessed  the  culmination  of 
this  political  drama  in  the  inauguration  of  the  President. 
It  was  a  peaceful  and  orderly  demonstration  conducted 
with  dignity  and  a  certain  degree  of  stateliness.  The 
capital  was  filled  with  apathetic  and  bewildered  specta- 
tors, who  were  hardly  able  to  believe  that  for  the  first 
time  in  twenty  ye-ctrs  Guzman  Blanco  had  ceased  to  be 
the  power  behind  the  throne.  There  was  a  fusillade  of 
bombs  and  fire-crackers  by  da}^,  and  there  were  glitter- 
ing showers  of  rockets  by  night.  Thousands  of  flags 
fluttered  from  the  house  tops ;  the  gray  lines  and 
sombre  effects  of  the  architecture  were  completely  con- 
cealed by  festoons  of  bunting  and  artistic  decorations ; 
archways  of  colored  lights  spanned  the  streets,  and 
the  plazas  were  brilliantly  illuminated  at  night.  The 
garrison  of  the  city,  numbering  several  thousands  of 
soldiers,  marched  through  the  principal  streets  to  the 
Yellow  House,  and  saluted  the  outgoing  and  incoming 
Presidents.  The  civic  ceremonies  were  attended  by  the 
EKCcutive  Council,  members  of  Congress,  the  chief 
officials,  and  the  diplomatic  corps.     The  new  President 


CARTAGENA  AND  CARACAS  241 

took  the  oath  of  office,  and,  after  delivering  a  short  but 
patriotic  inaugural  address,  received  the  congratulations 
of  his  friends.  While  cannon  were  booming,  and  mili- 
tary bands  were  playing  national  airs,  there  was  an 
undertone  of  public  apprehension  and  uncertainty  in 
the  festivities  of  the  day.  The  military  parade  was 
watched  with  apathetic  interest,  and  the  inaugural 
address,  of  which  thousands  of  printed  copies  were 
scattered  among  the  throng  of  spectators,  was  read 
listlessly  and  without  outward  signs  of  enthusiasm.  It 
was  a  curious  revelation  of  the  characteristic  attitude 
of  the  Spanish- American  race  in  times  of  political  ex- 
citement. The  same  torpor  and  indifference,  which  I  had 
witnessed  in  Brazil  after  the  revolution,  was  reproduced 
in  the  impassive  faces  and  motionless  figures  of  the 
populace  of  Caracas.  The  town  show  was  mildly  en- 
joyed ;  but  every  one  seemed  to  be  under  restraint,  and 
there  was  nothing  to  indicate  either  approval  or  disap- 
proval of  the  downfall  of  the  Dictator. 

Corruption  is  the  commonest  taint  of  Spanish- 
American  administration,  and  it  has  been  reserved  for 
the  country  of  Bolivar  to  acquire  an  unenviable  distinc- 
tion in  this  respect.  Although  Guzman's  long  political 
reign  was  an  era  of  progress  and  prosperity,  he  set  the 
malign  example  of  conducting  the  administration  for 
personal  ends.  Anduesa's  administration  instead  of 
being  an  era  of  reform,  reproduced  all  the  vices  and 
corruption  of  the  old  order,  and  none  of  its  progressive 
virtues.  After  two  years  it  ended  in  civil  war,  usurpa- 
tion, and  the  enforced  resignation  of  Anduesa.  Colombia 
and  Venezuela  present  in  their  political  and  administra- 
tive systems  the  most  deplorable  results  of  republican 
government  without  the  safe-guards  of  enlightened 
public  opinion. 


XIII 
JAMAICA   AND   THE   BAHAMAS 

PORT    ROYAL    AS    A    KAVAL    STATION  —  KINGSTON    AND    RU- 
RAL      JAMAICA THE       WEST  -  INDIAN       EXHIBITION  A 

CANADIAN     FLIRTATION    WITH     POOR     RELATIONS  RECI- 
PROCITY    WITH     AMERICAN     COMMERCIAL     DEPENDENCIES 

A    WORKING     GOVERNOR BAHAMA     HEMP     AND     CANE 

SUGAR  INDUSTRIAL    CONDITION    OF    THE    BRITISH    WEST 

INDIES  —  SAN    SALVADOR 

Port  Royal  is  the  key  of  the  West  Indian  Empire 
for  which  England  made  great  sacrifices  in  her  historic 
battle  for  supremacy  with  Spain  and  France.  The  con- 
quest of  Jamaica  by  Cromwell's  expedition,  in  1655,  a 
little  more  than  thirty  years  after  the  earliest  settle- 
ments in  St.  Kitts  and  Barbadoes,  was  the  first  blow 
aimed  by  a  maritime  rival  at  the  Spanish  Empire  in  the 
New  World.  It  was  the  opening  act  of  a  naval  drama 
in  which  England  won,  lost,  and  regained  an  empire. 
The  age  of  Chatham  witnessed  the  bombardment  of 
Havana,  the  destruction  of  one  mighty  fleet  after 
another,  and  the  surrender  of  nearly  every  French  island. 
The  West  Indian  Empire  seemed  to  have  been  lost  after 
Yorktown  when  only  Barbadoes  and  St.  Lucia  remained 
in  the  Lesser  Antilles  and  a  powerful  French  fleet  was 
threatening  the  conquest  of  Jamaica ;  but  Rodney's 
courage  and  genius  restored  English  prestige  in  the 
sea-fight   off  Dominica.     As  the  Empire  was  left  after 

242 


JAMAICA   AND   THE   BAHAMAS  243 

the  acquisition  of  Trinidad  and  British  Guiana  in  the 
Napoleonic  Wars  it  has  remained  to  this  day,  except 
that  its  colonial  population  has  been  impoverished, 
brought  to  the  verge  of  ruin  and  driven  out  of  the 
islands  by  increasing  hives  of  blacks.  With  the  Baha- 
mas in  the  north,  Belize  in  the  west,  and  the  Lesser 
Antilles  in  the  east,  curving  from  Porto  Rico  for  600 
miles  toward  the  mouth  of  the  Orinoco  and  British 
Guiana,  Port  Royal  is  the  geographical  centre  of  these 
once  highly-prized  and  prosperous  possessions.  It  is 
now  essentially  a  black  empire.  The  white  settlers  and 
their  descendants  were  ruined  by  Emancipation,  for 
which  grants  of  $100,000,000  from  the  British  exchequer 
were  an  inadequate  compensation.  Immigration  from 
England  ceased  long  ago ;  the  whites  are  rapidly  disap- 
pearing, and  the  future  of  the  British  West  Indies  is 
largely  dependent  upon  the  black  man's  lack  of  ambition, 
the  importation  of  Asiatics,  and  an  increasing  market 
for  tropical  produce  in  the  United  States. 

England  may  have  neglected  the  West  Indian 
Colonies  during  the  last  two  generations ;  but  Port 
Royal  is  the  centre  of  so  many  glorious  associations  and 
traditions  of  the  founding  and  preservation  of  the 
Empire,  that  its  dignity  as  a  naval  station  is  still  main- 
tained. Venables,  Collingwood,  Benbow,  Nelson,  Jer- 
vis,  and  Rodney  were  once  commanding  figures  in  the 
sheltered  lagoon,  with  its  long,  straggling  breakwater  of 
coral  reef  and  sand.  Often  has  it  been  a  rendezvous  for 
buccaneers'  raids  and  naval  squadrons  ;  and  prizes  taken 
from  France  and  Spain  have  been  condemned  and  sold 
there  by  the  score.  The  flag  still  floats  proudly  over  this 
famous  naval  station,  a  symbol  of  the  prestige  once  won 
in  the  Caribbean  at  costly  sacrifice  of  blood  and  treasure, 


244  TROPICAL   AIMEBICA 

and  a  sign  that  England  is  not  wholly  unmindful  of  the 
glory  of  her  history.  Guard-ships  and  vessels  of  war 
are  always  at  anchor  there ;  at  the  dock-yards  there  is  a 
plant  for  repairing  ships ;  and  fortifications,  barracks, 
hospitals,  and  storehouses  make  a  brave  show  of  impor- 
tance. The  town  itself  is  forlorn  and  squalid.  The 
great  earthquake  of  1692  shattered  its  fortunes  for  all 
time,  and  swallowed  up  the  records  of  its  profligacy  and 
debauchery. 

Port  Royal  lies  on  a  sand-bank  at  the  entrance  of  a 
deep  lagoon  formed  by  the  river  Cobre  trickling  through 
a  mangrove  swamp.  The  grass-grown  palisade  of  sand, 
crowned  here  and  there  with  stunted  palms,  runs  inland 
for  eight  miles.  Opposite  the  entrance  there  are  bat- 
teries, and  further  in  are  the  ruins  of  Fort  Augusta 
built  upon  an  unwholesome  site  where  yellow  fever  was 
singularly  fatal.  In  the  remote  reaches  of  the  lagoon 
lies  Kingston  on  a  sloping  hillside,  with  the  impressive 
background  of  the  Blue  Mountains.  When  approached 
from  the  sea  it  is  seen  for  hours  before  the  circuitous 
passage  is  traversed,  and  with  the  mountains  wreathed 
in  mist  it  is  transfigured  into  loveliness.  When  seen 
close  at  hand  it  is  something  very  different.  It  is  a  city 
essentially  commonplace,  with  dull  and  shabby  houses, 
with  unpretentious  and  ill-designed  frame  buildings, 
with  unpaved  streets  fouled  by  the  slime  of  open  drains, 
and  with  few  trees  and  a  meagre  display  of  tropical 
vegetation.  Kingston  has  often  been  devastated  by  fire, 
hurricane,  and  earthquake ;  but  after  each  disaster  it  has 
been  rebuilt  in  the  same  offensive,  inartistic  way.  From 
Victoria  market  at  the  water's  edge,  the  principal  busi- 
ness thoroughfare.  King  Street,  runs  up  the  slope  of  the 
hill  to  the  parade-ground,  an  ill-kept  park,  with  a  few 


JAMAICA   AND   THE  BAHAMAS  245 

fine  trees  and  dusty  beds  of  flowers.  Queen  Street 
meets  this  central  square  at  a  right  angle  with  King 
Street,  and  is  equally  uninteresting.  Near  the  parade- 
ground  there  is  an  ill-proportioned  English  church, 
remarkable  chiefly  for  being  the  burial  jilace  of  Admiral 
Benbow.  The  Colonial  Office  is  a  dingy  square  house ; 
there  is  a  small  public  library ;  and  a  miniature  museum, 
a  hospital  and  a  colonial  bank  complete  the  list  of  local 
institutions.  For  a  city,  with  a  population  of  40,000, 
Kingston  has  few  attractions.  The  sights  are  exhausted 
in  a  few  hours,  and  the  traveller  has  no  inclination  to 
repeat  them,  for  it  is  the  hottest  town  in  the  West 
Indies. 

The  suburbs  are  more  attractive  than  the  town  itself. 
Beyond  the  Exhibition  Buildings  are  the  barracks  of 
the  Up-Park  Camp,  the  headquarters  of  the  West  Indian 
regiment.  On  the  main  road  toward  Half-Way  Tree, 
there  are  many  pretty  houses  with  orange  groves,  cocoa- 
nut  clumps,  and  spreading  mangoes  about  them.  King's 
House,  where  the  Governor  lives,  is  in  that  quarter, 
with  a  beautiful  lawn  in  front  of  it,  and  a  tasteful  display 
of  shrubbery.  The  Colonial  officials  have  houses  near 
by,  and  there  is  a  quaint  English  church,  with  a  burying 
ground  behind  it.  The  church  was  built  during  the 
reign  of  Queen  Anne,  and  is  the  best  bit  of  architecture 
on  the  island.  Rural  Jamaica  is  very  lovely  indeed, 
with  scenery  of  entrancing  beauty  and  endless  variety. 

One  day  I  drove  out  to  Constant  Spring,  and  thence 
over  the  crest  of  the  mountains  to  Castleton  Gardens, 
passing  hundreds  of  small  farms  where  negroes  were 
cultivating  tobacco,  maize,  and  yams,  and  here  and 
there  a  field  of  cane.  The  road  followed  a  winding 
ravine  with  rich  alluvial  bottom  lands.     The  liillsides 


246  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

were  luxuriant  with  verdure,  mangoes,  cedars,  and 
palms  being  prominent  objects  in  the  distant  reaches. 
The  majestic  peaks  of  the  Blue  Mountains,  7360  feet 
high,  were  hidden  by  the  lower  ranges ;  but  there  were 
grand  prospects  as  the  ridge  was  ascended  and  frequent 
glimpses  of  a  swift-flowing  river  before  and  after  the 
descent  into  the  hollow  where  Castleton  Gardens  were 
sheltered  from  the  winds.  There  had  been  recent  rains, 
and  the  valleys  and  meadows  were  lovely  in  their  fresh- 
ness and  richness  of  tone.  Another  day  was  spent  in 
Spanishtown,  the  old  capital.  Its  glory  has  departed 
with  the  transfer  of  the  government  to  Kingston;  but 
it  is  a  delightfully  quaint  town  with  its  deserted  Spanish 
plaza,  its  rambling  lanes  and  vine-covered  houses,  and 
its  legislative  halls  and  official  residences  falling  into 
decay.  Spanishtown  is  the  starting-point  for  some  of 
the  most  picturesque  drives  on  the  island.  The  best  of 
these,  the  road  to  Rio  Cobre  Dam  and  Bog  Walk,  offers 
a  succession  of  enchanting  views,  and  is  justly  esteemed 
by  the  natives  the  finest  bit  of  river  and  mountain 
scenery  to  be  seen  in  the  West  Indies.  Not  content 
with  driving  over  the  road  once,  I  returned  from  Bog 
Walk  to  Spanishtown  by  carriage  in  preference  to 
taking  the  railway  to  Porus,  whence  I  was  to  go  to 
Mandeville,  loveliest  of  West  Indian  villages.  The 
English  have  not  done  all  things  well  in  Jamaica;  but 
they  have  opened  a  system  of  roads  in  every  quarter  of 
the  island  which  is  unrivalled  in  the  West  Indies. 

The  foreign  visitor  who  remains  for  several  weeks  in 
this  lovely  island  is  impressed  with  a  sense  of  the 
failure  of  Anglo-Saxon  civilization.  Kingston  is  one 
of  the  largest  centres  of  population  in  the  British  pos- 
sessions in  Tropical-  America.     It  is  one  of  the  most 


STREET  SCENE,  BARBADOES 


JAMAICA    AND    THE   BAHAMAS  247 

backward  and  least  attractive  of  Southern  cities.  I 
have  not  found  any  Brazilian  or  Spanish-American 
coast  town  of  equal  pretensions  where  the  streets  have 
been  so  badly  paved  and  lighted,  or  where  the  sanitary 
conditions  are  so  utterly  neglected.  In  only  one  respect 
does  Kingston  compare  favorably  with  cities  of  Spanish 
origin.  It  has  an  excellent  system  of  wharves  on  the 
water  front  where  steamers  can  receive  and  discharge 
cargo  with  facility.  With  its  shabby  and  commonplace 
architecture,  its  neglected  parks,  its  filthy  streets  and 
its  surface  drainage,  it  offers  a  striking  contrast  to 
Spanish-American  coast  cities. 

The  religious  aspects,  both  of  the  capital  and  of  the 
island,  are  most  appalling.  The  work  of  the  Roman 
Church  in  Spanish  America  has  not  been  perfect,  but  it 
has,  at  least,  secured  respect  for  marriage  and  family  life. 
The  English  Church  in  the  West  Indies  has  failed  to 
leaven  the  mass  of  black  ignorance.  The  Moravians 
have  been  more  successful  in  their  missionary  efforts, 
but  they  have  been  powerless  to  enforce  the  necessity 
of  marriage  or  to  repress  the  shocking  immorality  pre- 
vailing in  the  islands.  The  vast  majority  of  negro  and 
colored  women  prefer  to  have  looser  bonds  than  wedlock 
so  that  they  can  desert  their  homes,  if  the  fathers  of 
their  children  do  not  treat  them  well.  Mr.  Froude 
describes  it  cynically  as  "a  very  peculiar  state  of  things, 
not  to  be  understood,  as  priest  and  missionary  agree, 
without  long  acquaintance."  "There  is  immorality," 
he  adds,  "  but  an  immorality  which  is  not  demoralizing." 
When  one  contrasts  the  failure  of  the  English  to  inspire 
the  West  Indian  blacks  with  respect  for  family  life  with 
the  success  of  the  Spanish  in  making  marriage  a  relig- 
ious institution  among  the  Indian  races  of   the  New 


248  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

World,  he  cannot  follow  Mr.  Fronde's  sophistries  about 
the  eating  of  forbidden  frnit  which  brings  with  it  no 
knowledge  of  the  difference  between  good  and  evil. 

What,  is  perhaps,  more  discouraging  than  anything 
else,  is  the  tone  of  hopelessness  with  which  the  officials  and 
descendants  of  the  colonists  talk  of  the  future  of  Jamaica, 
and  the  inevitable  supremacy  of  the  black  race.  There 
is  good  society  in  the  suburbs  of  Kingston,  and  an 
incoming  traveller  is  invariably  received  with  hospital- 
ity and  refinement  of  courtesy  by  the  white  residents ; 
but  no  one  can  mingle  freely  with  them  without  per- 
ceiving signs  of  apprehension  and  anxiety  by  which 
their  daily  life  is  overclouded.  I  talked  with  men  who 
lived  in  remote  quarters  of  the  island  where  large  and 
successful  business  interests  had  been  established,  and 
they  confessed  that  they  constantly  had  the  feeling  of 
living  with  a  sword  suspended  over  them.  There  are 
mercantile  centres  where  four  or  five  whites  live  in  the 
presence  of  thousands  of  blacks,  who  are  known  to  be 
pulsating  with  ambition  and  unrest.  "We  do  not  talk 
very  much  about  it,"  said  one  of  these  merchants,  "but 
we  are  all  looking  for  an  earthquake  which  will  swallow 
up  the  white  population."  The  history  of  the  island, 
with  its  Maroon  wars  and  Gordon  insurrection,  shows 
that  the  colored  race  is  not  lacking  in  independence  of 
spirit.  Hayti,  where  an  industrious  French  population 
was  massacred  in  a  tempest  of  black  passion,  is  a  warn- 
ing of  what  can  be  done  anywhere  in  the  British  West 
Indies,  if  the  colored  race  ever  pass  beyond  control. 
The  denunciation  of  Governor  Eyre  is  also  a  forecast  of 
the  severity  with  which  any  resolute  administrator  will 
be  condemned  by  the  English  people. 

Whether  the  English  have  legislated  well  or  ill  for 


JAMAICA  AND  THE  BAHAMAS  249 

this  once  prosperous  plantation  colony,  the}'  have  con- 
trived to  empty  it  of  its  white  population.  The  present 
Governor  of  Jamaica,  Sir  Henry  Blake,  may  have  erred 
in  his  choice  of  expedients ;  but  he  has,  at  least,  had  the 
right  aim  in  view  in  making  the  resources  of  the  island 
better  known  abroad,  in  order  to  attract  a  fresh  supply 
of  white  blood.  He  is  to  be  credited  with  organizing 
and  directing  a  movement  for  providing  increased  hotel 
accommodations.  The  theory  has  been  that  foreigners 
have  not  gone  to  Jamaica  to  pass  the  winters,  because 
the  old-fashioned  lodging-houses  and  inns  were  inferior, 
and  that  the  only  practical  method  of  drawing  in  visitors 
was  to  build  a  large  number  of  expensive  hotels  with 
modern  improvements.  Kingston  now  has  a  very  ambi- 
tious hotel  at  the  water's  edge.  At  Constant  Spring,  a 
few  miles  out  of  the  city,  there  is  another  great  house 
with  accommodations  for  several  hundreds  of  guests. 
Spanishtown  has  an  aspiring  hotel,  and  many  other 
houses  have  been  opened  with  a  flourish  of  trumpets. 
These  hotels  are  now  lonesome  and  depressing  barracks. 
During  the  Exhibition  season  their  rooms  were  seldom 
filled.  How  they  can  be  converted  into  remunerative 
investments  passes  comprehension. 

The  Colonial  Exhibition,  which  I  visited  frequently 
during  my  stay  in  the  island,  was  a  more  serious  attempt 
to  advertise  to  the  world,  and  especially  to  Europe,  the 
resources  of  Jamaica.  While  it  was  not  a  self-support- 
ing enterprise  financially,  and  involved  a  deficit  in  run- 
ning expenses  which  the  subscribers  to  the  guaranty 
fund  were  required  to  make  good,  it  was  attended  by 
more  than  200,000  visitors,  and  was  a  most  creditable 
industrial  display.  The  chief  benefit  derived  by  the 
island  from  the  undertaking  was  the  stimulative  effect 


250  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

of  carrying  out  a  great  and  useful  project.  Never 
before  had  Jamaicans  made  an  effort  to  take  an  account 
of  their  stock  of  resources,  and  to  find  out  for  themselves, 
and  then  to  let  the  world  know,  what  they  could  do. 

The  Exhibition  was  organized  primarily  for  the  pur- 
pose of  displaying  the  industrial  resources  of  the  Brit- 
ish West  Indies,  and  of  attracting  European  capital  and 
immigration  to  a  neglected  quarter  of  the  Empire.  The 
Dominion  Parliament  voted  a  large  appropriation  for  it, 
and  appointed  an  energetic  commission.  The  Canadian 
exhibit  was  the  most  pretentious  one  in  the  Main  Build- 
ing, and  not  only  occupied  a  good  share  of  the  space  on 
the  floor  and  in  the  galleries,  but  also  called  into  requi- 
sition several  structures  outside.  It  was  a  complete 
and  even  brilliant  display  of  the  Canadian  fisheries, 
manufactures,  and  produce  of  field,  mine,  and  forest.  It 
was  under  the  charge  of  an  active  and  intelligent  staff, 
which  ceased  not,  day  nor  night,  to  glorify  the  Domin- 
ion, and  to  depreciate  the  value  of  the  Ameiican  market 
as  the  base  of  exchange  for  West  Indian  products.  For 
six  months  there  was  a  most  determined  effort  to  draw 
the  islands  into  a  scheme  of  commercial  union,  from 
which  Canada  would  have  everything  to  gain  and  Eng- 
land's West  Indian  possessions  everything  to  lose.  In 
this  movement  the  Canadian  Finance  Minister  took  an 
active  part,  visiting  the  principal  islands  and  boldly 
advocating  a  colonial  trade  bund  based  upon  preferen- 
tial tariff  schedules. 

It  was  not  until  Canada  was  deprived  of  many  of  its 
commercial  privileges  in  the  American  market  that  its 
ministers  began  to  take  any  interest  in  the  West  Indies. 
Then  there  was  a  change  of  attitude.  Canada,  instead 
of  offering  cold  shoulder  and  cynical  advice  to  the  West 


JAMAICA   AND   THE  BAHAMAS  251 

Indians,  as  Mr.  Froude  has  represented  her  as  doing  after 
the  rejection  of  the  first  American  sugar  treaty,  fairly 
embarrassed  them  with  the  warmth  and  intensity  of  her 
aifection.  The  once  despised  Jamaica,  which  liad  seemed 
a  long  way  off  and  to  have  an  impoverished  non-con- 
suming population  of  ignorant  blacks,  suddenly  loomed 
up  before  the  eyes  of  the  Ottawa  Ministers  as  a  thrifty 
and  prosperous  island  tenanted  by  loyal  Britons ;  and 
the  West  Indian  archipelago  from  Trinidad  to  Barba- 
does,  from  Grenada  to  Dominica,  and  from  Antigua  to 
the  Bahamas,  assumed  the  importance  of  a  commercial 
empire  held  by  the  Queen's  worshipful  subjects  of  the 
same  breed  as  themselves.  Then  it  seemed  the  most 
natural  thing  in  the  world  that  brethren  should  dwell 
together  in  unity  and  be  wholly  independent  of  the 
United  States,  which,  after  all,  was  not  a  larger  market, 
at  least  in  extent  of  territory,  than  British  North 
America ! 

Sir  Henry  Blake  during  the  Exhibition  period  lis- 
tened with  a  rapt  air  to  the  Canadian  cuckoo  song  and 
seemed  almost  willing  to  be  convinced  that  there  were 
millions  of  fur  traders  in  the  barren  stretches  of  Hud- 
son's Bay  territory,  who  were  athirst  for  Jamaica  rum 
with  sugar  in  it,  and  that  in  the  regions  toward  the 
North  Pole  there  were  other  millions  of  Esquimaux 
who  were  hungering  after  bananas  and  oranges  to  eat 
with  their  ice-cream.  The  necessity  for  being  polite  to 
his  guests  and  patrons  passed  with  the  close  of  the 
Exhibition,  and  the  commercial  statistics  of  the  island 
unerringly  revealed  the  superiority  of  the  American 
market  as  a  base  of  trading  operations.  The  official 
returns  published  in  1891  showed  that,  while  Canada 
bought  -l^lSSjTTS  of  Jamaica  produce  and  sold  '1721,765 


252  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

in  return,  the  United  States  purchased  $3,966,550  and 
supplied  $2,722,650  in  provisions  and  manufactures. 
Canada,  while  selling  four  times  as  much  as  it  bought, 
was  not  in  a  position  to  ask  for  differential  advantages 
in  furnishing  Jamaica  with  flour,  fish,  lumber,  coal,  and 
manufactures.  The  United  States,  while  buying  twenty- 
one  times  as  much  as  Canada  and  selling  less  than 
four  times  as  much,  was  clearly  entitled  to  preferential 
arrangements  in  the  export  trade,  since  it  could  offer 
with  its  population  of  63,000,000  a  vastly  superior 
market  for  sugar,  coffee,  and  fruit  than  Canada  with 
its  population  of  5,000,000. 

The  question  which  the  planters  of  the  islands  were 
invited  by  the  Canadian  Minister  of  Finance  to  de- 
termine was  whether  they  could  afford  to  be  deprived 
of  their  free  market  in  the  United  States  for  all  their 
produce  except  oranges,  for  the  sake  of  accommodating 
the  Dominion,  which  had  been  injured  by  American 
tariff  legislation.  If  they  were  to  discriminate  in  favor 
of  a  vastly  inferior  customer,  who  was  already  selling 
to  them  four  times  as  much  as  it  was  buying,  the  effect 
of  the  transaction  would  be  inevitably  to  subject  their 
own  sugar,  coffee,  and  hides  to  import  duties  in  the 
United  States.  They  might  not  be  willing  to  enter  into 
commercial  union  with  the  United  States,  but  they  were 
unprepared  to  fling  away  the  advantages  of  their  largest 
market  by  supporting  Canada's  demand  for  preferential 
trade. 

The  new  proposals  of  the  United  States  were  based 
upon  a  free  market  for  sugar,  coffee,  and  hides,  but  the 
advantages  were  to  be  shared  equally  by  Brazil  and 
the  Spanish  West  Indies.  It  was  not  so  generous  as  the 
previous  proposal,  which  had  been  vetoed  by  England ; 


JAMAICA   AND   THE   BAHAMAS  25B 

but  it  was  made  by  the  best  customer  whom  the  islands 
had.  Before  I  left  Jamaica,  news  was  received  of  the 
negotiation  of  a  reciprocity  agreement  between  Spain 
and  the  United  States,  by  which  a  free  market  for 
Cuban  sugar  had  been  permanently  secured.  That 
announcement  brought  the  Canadian  flirtation  to  a 
close.  The  acceptance  of  the  American  offer  by  Spain 
made  it  impossible  for  the  British  West  Indies  to  reject 
it.  The  British  planters  were  sending  $13,000,000  of 
sugar  to  the  American  market  against  $43, 000,000 
which  was  exported  from  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico.  It 
was  their  chief  staple,  and  they  could  not  sell  it  any- 
where else ;  and  if  duties  were  imposed  upon  it  in  1892, 
it  could  not  be  sold  even  there.  Those  duties,  which 
would  follow  their  neglect  to  modify  their  own  tariffs, 
would  be  a  discrimination  in  favor  of  the  Spanish 
islands  against  the  British  West  Indies.  Their  principal 
industry  would  be  ruined,  while  American  capital  and 
machinery  were  going  into  Cuba  and  promoting  its 
commercial  revival.  This  was  the  logic  of  the  economic 
situation,  and  before  the  year  ended  British  Guiana,  the 
Leeward  and  Windward  Islands,  Jamaica,  Barbadoes, 
and  Trinidad  made  the  best  bargain  they  could  at 
Washington  for  the  permanent  retention  of  the  free 
market.  Their  own  tariffs,  which  had  been  ingeniously 
devised  so  as  to  tax  American  food  products  heavily 
and  English  manufactures  liglitly,  were  readjusted  on 
equitable  conditions  of  trade.  The  Colonial  Office, 
which  had  once  interposed  its  veto,  was  powerless  to 
obstruct  reciprocity.  England  had  done  nothing  for 
the  sugar  islands  since  the  Emancipation  period.  It 
had  opened  its  own  ports  to  sugar  from  all  the  world 
and  had  left  the  principal  industry  of  its  West  Indian 


254  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

possessions  to  decline,  while  Europe  was  stimulating 
the  cultivation  of  the  sugar  beet  by  bounties  and  sup- 
porting it  by  superior  facilities  for  technical  education. 
To  have  closed  the  American  market  by  a  second  veto 
upon  commercial  union  would  have  completed  their 
ruin. 

Nine  governors  are  employed  to  direct  the  destinies 
of  the  British  West  Indies.  They  draw  their  salaries, 
respect  the  traditions  of  the  Colonial  Office,  entertain 
the  ofificers  of  Her  Majesty's  fleet,  exercise  supreme  legis- 
lative, judicial,  and  executive  powers,  and  strive  to  con- 
ciliate in  every  possible  way  the  black  constituencies  by 
fictitious  concessions.  In  the  main  these  functionaries 
are  content  to  wind  and  unwind  the  red  tape  spools  of 
the  Colonial  Office,  and  to  make  tariffs  in  the  interest 
of  English  manufacturers.  They  are  drawn  helplessly 
along  in  the  drift  of  West  Indian  tendencies.  There 
has  been  constant  experimenting  with  constitutions  and 
franchises.  The  general  trend  of  events  and  tenden- 
cies is  in  the  direction  of  negro  rule.  The  whites,  dis- 
heartened by  the  economic  conditions  and  despairing  of 
receiving  reinforcements  of  European  immigrants,  are 
selling  their  plantations  and  rapidly  disappearing  from 
the  islands.  In  Jamaica  there  are  700,000  blacks  and 
15,000  whites,  and  in  other  islands  the  preponderance  of 
dark  blood  is  even  greater.  In  Trinidad  and  British 
Guiana  coolie  labor  has  been  introduced  with  marked 
success,  and  in  Jamaica  the  same  experiment  has  been 
satisfactorily  tested ;  but  in  the  main  the  industries  of 
the  islands  are  dependent  upon  an  indolent  colored  race, 
which  is  already  impressed  with  the  conviction  that  it 
is  destined  to  govern  and  own  the  British  West  Indies. 
What  is  needed  is  European  immigration  on  a  large 


JAMAICA   AND   THE   BAHAMAS  255 

scale  and  the  investment  of  English  capital  in  new  and 
profitable  industries,  in  order  to  secure  the  maintenance 
of  white  ascendency  and  the  material  development  of 
the  islands. 

A  work  of  this  kind  has  been  undertaken  by  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  Bahamas,  Sir  Ambrose  Shea,  an  official 
with  a  soul  above  red  tape.  A  few  weeks  before  my 
journey  to  Jamaica  I  had  paid  him  a  visit  at  Nassau  and 
had  been  greatly  impressed  with  the  industrial  policy 
which  he  has  introduced  there.  When  he  first  reached 
his  post,  he  found  a  few  minor  industries,  which  were 
languidly  operated,  but  were  not  a  substantial  source  of 
colonial  wealth.  He  noticed  a  species  of  cactus,  known 
in  the  Bahamas  as  the  Pita,  growing  neglected  and 
despised  among  the  rocks.  His  experienced  eye  recog- 
nized in  the  long,  sharp-pointed  leaves  a  valuable  fibre 
material.  Discerning  with  keen  intelligence  the  eco- 
nomic basis  of  a  new  industry  of  great  promise,  he  sent 
to  London  samples  of  rope  crudely  manufactured  from 
the  leaves  of  the  largest  plants.  There  the  fibre  was 
pronounced  by  experts  to  be  equal,  if  not  superior,  to 
the  best  manila  hemp.  After  obtaining  the  sanction 
of  the  colonial  legislators  for  the  sale  of  Crown  lands  for 
the  cultivation  of  sisal,  he  hastened  to  London,  where 
he  succeeded  in  interesting  capitalists  in  liis  project. 
Large  tracts  in  New  Providence  and  other  islands  were 
purchased,  cleared,  and  planted.  At  first  a  bounty  was 
offered  for  the  promotion  of  the  industry,  but  this  was 
speedily  suspended.  So  numerous  were  the  applica- 
tions from  foreign  investors  that  the  price  of  land  rose 
from  st)1.25  to  |4  an  acre.  As  unrestricted  sale  of  land 
would  have  involved  not  only  the  cheapening  of  the 
product,  but  also  serious  difficulties  respecting  the  labor 


256  TIIOPICAL   AMEIUCA 

supply,  restrictions  were  placed  upon  the  cultivation  of 
fibre  plants.  The  governor  provided  a  safeguard  against 
overproduction  by  limiting  the  number  of  acres  to  be 
sold,  and  sought  to  prevent  a  scarcity  of  labor  in  any 
quarter  by  a  careful  distribution  of  allotments  of  land. 
He  also  aimed  to  raise  the  standard  of  labor  by  enabling 
colored  people  to  buy  land  on  the  easiest  possible  terms. 

The  governor's  industry,  as  he  described  it  to  me,  is 
in  an  experimental  stage.  The  fibre  produced  has  been 
from  old  plants  growing  wild  in  the  islands.  The  plan- 
tations started  under  his  administration  will  not  bear 
leaves  with  fibre  of  the  requisite  quality  before  1895. 
Then  the  financial  results  of  his  industrial  policy  will 
be  known.  In  any  event  the  cultivation  of  Bahama 
hemp  promises  to  carry  into  the  millions  the  exports  of 
the  islands,  which  now  amount  to  8650,000  annually. 
The  industry  has  already  attracted  English  investors, 
and  has  increased  the  valuation  of  land  -f  1,250,000. 

Sir  Ambrose  Shea  is  ridiculed  by  the  incredulous 
as  a  monomaniac.  Certainly  he  talks  and  ajDparently 
thinks  of  little  except  Bahama  hemp.  There  has  been, 
however,  much  reason  in  his  madness,  and  an  industry 
admirably  adapted  to  the  soil,  the  climate,  and  the  con- 
ditions of  labor  has  been  introduced.  He  believes  that 
it  will  be  a  source  of  wealth,  and  he  is  anticipating  the 
new  era  of  industrial  development  by  improving  the 
communications  of  the  islands  with  one  another  and 
the  world.  If  his  policy  be  successful,  it  will  convert 
Nassau  into  one  of  the  commercial  centres  of  the  West 
Indies.  Certainly,  monomania  which  takes  the  form  of 
intense  zeal  for  the  enlargement  of  industrial  resources 
and  the  promotion  of  the  prosperity  of  all  classes  of  the 
colonial  population  is  so  rare  as  to  be  phenomenal. 


JAMAICA   AND   THE   BAHAMAS  257 

Since  the  Emancipation  year  the  British  colonists  in 
the  West  Indies  liave  been  constantly  warned  against 
dependence  upon  cane  sugar,  but  the  introduction  of 
new  industries  has  been  attended  with  great  difficulty 
and  with  meagre  results.  Cacao  has  been  successfully 
cultivated  in  Trinidad,  where  there  is  also  a  large 
export  of  asphalt.  Grenada  has  an  extensive  cacao 
tract.  The  Windward  Islands  and  Dominica  raise 
small  quantities  of  coffee,  cacao,  and  cotton.  Montser- 
rat  has  a  petty  industry  in  limes,  and  dyewoods  are 
shipped  from  all  the  islands.  In  Jamaica,  where  the 
sugar  production  has  had  a  very  marked  decline,  the 
coffee  exports  have  remained  stationary,  the  industry 
being  largely  conducted  by  black  peasant  proprietors  on 
a  small  scale.  Intelligent  labor  is  lacking  there  for  a 
large  development  of  tobacco  farming.  Logwood  con- 
tinues to  be  exported  in  considerable  quantities,  but 
most  of  it  consists  of  old  stumps  and  roots,  the  remnant 
of  more  active  enterprise  in  earlier  days.  The  island's 
exports  during  recent  years  would  have  declined,  if  the 
fruit  trade  had  not  been  organized  on  a  large  scale  by  a 
few  enterprising  Americans.  St.  Ann's  Bay,  Falmouth, 
Port  Antonio,  and  Kingston  have  been  converted  into 
great  centres  for  the  shipment  of  bananas  and  oranges 
to  the  United  States  market,  and  a  large  fleet  of  steam- 
ers has  been  employed  in  the  service.  Very  active 
competition  for  the  control  of  the  fruit  trade  has  fol- 
lowed, and  the  exjiort  of  bananas  has  been  largely 
increased. 

The  opening  of  numerous  banana  tracts  in  Cen- 
tral America  threatens  to  reduce  this  trade.  While  I 
was  in  the  island,  one  of  the  largest  American  houses 
withdrew  its  fleet,  sold  out  a  valuable  trading  plant,  and 


258  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

transferred  its  operations  to  Honduras.  Shrewd  men 
in  the  trade  already  perceive  that  Jamaica  cannot  com- 
pete permanently  with  Central  America  in  supplying 
the  American  market.  Its  bananas  have  to  be  trans- 
ported by  mule  or  wagon  from  the  interior,  and  the 
expense  is  thereby  largely  increased.  Plantations  situ- 
ated on  rivers  like  the  Bluefields  in  Nicaragua  have  a 
great  advantage  over  those  in  Jamaica,  as  steamers  can 
call  at  their  wharves  for  the  fruit  and  the  cost  of  ship- 
ment is  heavily  reduced.  Central  America  is  destined 
to  be  the  chief  banana  farm  of  the  United  States.  The 
banana  trade  of  Jamaica  is  exposed  already  to  sharp 
competition  from  that  quarter.  As  for  oranges,  while 
there  is  fine  fruit  in  the  island,  it  is  virtually  the  wild 
stock,  planted  from  seeds  and  unimproved  by  bud- 
ding and  grafting.  While  Florida  has  been  steadily 
developing  improved  methods  of  orange  cultivation, 
Jamaica  has  continued  to  raise  the  old  stock. 

While  the  sugar  industry  is  declining  in  Jamaica 
and  the  Leeward  Islands,  and  cannot  be  maintained  in 
Barbadoes,  the  Windward  group,  Trinidad,  and  British 
Guiana,  without  commercial  union  with  the  United 
States,  fruit  and  cacao  are  meagre  substitutes  for  it  as 
sources  of  wealth.  If  anything  is  to  be  made  of  the 
islands,  it  is  through  the  introduction  of  new  industries 
like  Sir  Ambrose  Shea's  Bahama  hemp.  If  he  succeeds 
in  attracting  English  capital  and  immigration  a  great 
impulse  will  be  imparted  to  the  fortunes  of  what  has 
been  considered  the  poorest  group  of  islands  in  the 
archipelago.  It  is  in  the  Bahamas,  if  anywhere,  that 
there  are  signs  of  the  dawn  of  a  new  industrial  era. 
Sisal  can  be  cultivated  in  Jamaica  and  the  Virgin  and 
Leeward  Islands.     There  can  be  as  wide  a  range  of 


JAMAICA   AND   THE  BAHAMAS  259 

fibre  plants  in  the  West  Indies  as  in  Mexico.  The 
United  States  has  recently  placed  a  high  premium  upon 
this  class  of  industries  by  opening  a  free  market  for  raw 
fibre. 

It  is  at  least  a  pleasant  fancy  that  the  despised 
Bahamas,  which  were  the  first  coral  reefs  sighted  by 
Columbus,  have  the  promise  of  an  industrial  future. 
San  Salvador  is  a  low-lying  line  of  beach  between 
Eleutheria  and  Long  Island  on  the  outer  rim  of  the 
Great  Bahama  Bank.  A  headland  at  the  southern  end 
bears  the  discoverer's  name ;  but  there  are  few  signs 
of  that  loveliness  of  verdure  which  he  described  with 
rapture  to  his  sovereigns  upon  his  return  to  Spain.  It 
is  now  tenanted  by  a  few  hundreds  of  negroes  who 
make  a  scanty  living  by  fishing  and  raising  oranges  and 
pineapples.  As  it  lies  in  the  track  of  New  York 
steamers  bound  for  the  south  coast  of  Cuba,  Jamaica, 
and  the  Isthmus,  it  comes  frequently  under  the  eyes 
of  travellers,  and  never  without  exciting  emotion  and 
interest.  That  shingle  of  white  beach  had  in  it  the 
promise  of  a  New  World  to  be  added  to  the  resources  of 
civilization.  Dull,  indeed,  must  be  the  soul  that  fails 
to  appreciate  in  some  degree  the  significance  of  its  dis- 
covery. Unconscious  of  the  great  part  which  it  has 
played  in  history,  it  now  shrinks  from  close  scrutiny. 
Before  a  decade  ends  it  may  be  the  centre  of  hemp 
plantations,  and  be  restored  to  the  modern  world  of 
industry  after  four  centuries  of  neglect. 


XIV 

THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD 

ALONG    THE     CUBAN     COAST — EXPEDIENTS     FOR     HARASSING 

AMERICAN    SHIPPING VANITY    FAIR     IN    CIENFUEGOS  

ASPECTS  OF  THE   CUBAN   CAPITAL SIGNS   OF  EXHAUSTION 

IN  MATANZAS AMERICAN  OPPORTUNITIES  AND  RESPON- 
SIBILITIES  THE  LAST  MARKET  FOR  CANE  SUGAR UN- 
RECIPROCAL     PROTECTION     RUINOUS     TO     CUBA HAVANA 

HELPLESS  BUT  WASHINGTON  POWERFUL  —  ANNEXATION 
AND    COMMERCIAL    UNION 

Cape  Maisi  is  the  land  first  sighted  when  Cuba  is 
approached  from  the  Bahamas  and  the  Windward  Chan- 
nel. It  is  a  barren  coast  that  meets  the  stranger's 
eyes  until  Guantanamo  Bay  is  entered,  and  the  Sierra 
Maestra  becomes  the  background  for  impressive  scenery. 
This  is  the  first  of  a  series  of  spacious  bays  with  which 
the  island  is  encircled.  Havana,  Matanzas,  Nuevitas, 
and  Neve  on  the  north,  and  Guantanamo,  Santiago, 
and  Cienfuegos  on  the  south  have  harbors  unrivalled 
in  the  West  Indies.  Here  is  the  suggestion  for  an  argu- 
ment from  Nature  in  favor  of  the  closest  commercial 
relations  between  the  United  States  and  Cuba.  Let 
it  be  conceded  that  the  physical  forces  shaping  the  con- 
figuration of  the  coasts  of  the  island  were  directed  by 
reason  and  benignant  purpose,  and  it  will  follow  that 
the  harbors  were  designed  to  facilitate  commercial  ex- 
changes with  the  adjacent  continent,  the  home  of  the 
260 


THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD  261 

American  branch  of  the  English-speaking  race.  In 
Nature's  bold  hand,  Commercial  Union  may  be  traced 
in  the  deep  indentations  of  the  seaboard.  On  moun- 
tain sides  stored  with  iron,  manganese,  and  mineral 
wealth,  in  forests  of  the  interior  practically  unexplored, 
and  in  valleys  and  level  tracts  unsurpassed  for  fertility, 
the  same  words  are  written  in  letters  large. 

At  Guantanamo  I  caught  a  first  near  glimpse  of 
Cuba,  and  heard  an  intelligent  discussion  of  the  indus- 
trial state  of  the  island.  A  prominent  sugar-planter  of 
the  south  side  took  passage  on  the  steamer  for  Santi- 
ago, and  was  unreserved  in  conversation.  It  was  early 
in  January,  1891,  or  about  five  months  before  the  com- 
mercial treaty  was  negotiated  with  Spain.  A  delega- 
tion, representing  nearly  all  the  industrial  interests 
of  Cuba,  was  then  in  Madrid  urging  compliance  with 
the  reciprocity  requirements  of  the  United  States,  but 
apparently  without  hope  of  influencing  the  Spanish 
Government.  I  asked  this  planter  what  would  be  the 
result  if  Spain  were  to  refuse  to  negotiate  a  treaty  with 
the  United  States  during  the  year.  "A  revolution  in 
the  island,"  was  the  quick  response.  It  seemed  a 
startling  prediction  to  me  then,  but  before  I  had  been 
in  Cuba  a  month  it  had  been  repeated  a  hundred  times. 

Another  fellow-passenger,  who  knew  Cuba  well,  was 
the  superintendent  of  the  Juragua  mines  near  Santiago. 
Less  than  ten  years  ago  the  first  iron  claim  in  the  moun- 
tains was  officially  recognized.  Now  there  are  three 
American  corporations  developing  large  tracts  of  rich 
mining  territory,  building  railways  to  the  coast,  and 
exporting  ore  to  Pennsylvania.  The  oldest  of  these 
companies  employs  2000  miners  and  railway  workmen, 
has  a  rolling  stock  of  1600  cars,  and  requires  for  the 


262  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

transportation  of  its  ore  a  fleet  of  twenty  steamers.  It 
is  most  valuable  ore,  and  the  mountains  seem  from  sur- 
face indications  to  be  well  stocked  with  it.  The  Span- 
ish Government  has  promoted  the  development  of  these 
properties,  and  the  industrial  results  are  proving  bene- 
ficial to  Eastern  Cuba.  Immigration  has  been  encour- 
aged, employment  has  been  offered  to  an  impoverished 
population,  and  the  business  interests  of  Santiago  have 
been  powerfully  aided  by  mining  enterprise.  The  same 
government  by  responding  favorably  to  the  American 
offer  to  negotiate  an  equitable  reciprocity  treaty,  has 
stimulated  investment  of  American  capital  in  sugar 
plantations  and  improved  machinery  by  which  the 
chief  industry  of  the  island  will  be  rendered  vastly 
more  profitable.  What  Cuba  needs  to-day  is  the  reor- 
ganization of  its  agricultural  system  with  foreign  capi- 
tal so  as  to  secure  more  economical  production  of  its 
great  staples. 

There  is  one  Caribbean  seaboard  that  rivals  Eastern 
Cuba  in  boldness  and  grandeur, —  the  mountainous  coast 
of  Venezuela;  but  there  is  no  harbor  on  the  Spanish  Main 
to  be  compared  with  Santiago  de  Cuba.  The  rock- 
bound  coast  sullenly  opens  its  granite  gates,  and  jeal- 
ously guards  the  entrance  to  a  spacious  bay  flanked  by 
mountains.  One  of  the  giant  cliffs  sloping  abruptly 
seaward  is  crowned  with  a  gray  fortress.  So  narrow  is 
the  entrance  that  the  ship  seems  to  pass  directly  under 
the  antique  battlements,  and  the  sentinels  on  the  stone 
terraces,  and  the  prisoners  behind  the  barred  windows, 
are  almost  within  call.  The  harbor  opens  and  widens 
as  the  ship  sails  on  until  it  is  a  placid  expanse  of  shel- 
tered water,  with  blue  mountains  encircling  it,  and  the 
city  a  long  way  in  the  distance   transfigured  in  the 


THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD  263 

golden  light  of  a  tropical  morning.  Like  Rio  de 
Janeiro  it  lies  among  hills  with  mountains  encamped 
about  it,  with  islands  bristling  with  fortifications,  and 
with  seaward  defences  which  could  be  made  impreg- 
nable, even  with  meagre  engineering  skill.  Like  the 
Brazilian  capital  also,  it  is  a  foul  and  shabby  town, 
unworthy  of  its  magnificent  surroundings. 

There  had  been  an  outbreak  of  yellow  fever  among 
the  Spanish  miners  in  the  mountains,  and  the  sanitary 
condition  of  the  town  was  so  dangerous  that  I  was  glad 
to  continue  my  journey  along  the  south  coast.  I  sailed 
with  Captain  Colton,  of  whom  a  good  story  can  be  told. 
Owing  to  bad  weather  at  Nassau  he  was  once  com- 
pelled to  leave  port  without  landing  a  portion  of  his 
cargo.  When  he  arrived  at  the  Cuban  ports  he  reported 
the  case,  and  announced  that  he  would  land  the  cargo 
on  the  return  trip,  and  send  by  mail  a  certificate  from 
the  Spanish  Consul  at  Nassau  that  the  goods  had  been 
put  ashore  there.  The  custom-house  ofiicials  would 
not  listen  to  him,  but  refused  to  clear  his  ship  because 
cargo  not  intended  for  Cuba  had  been  brought  in.  He 
allowed  them  half  an  hour  in  which  to  come  to  a  decis- 
ion. He  told  them  that  in  order  to  j^rotect  the  lives  of 
his  passengers,  and  to  save  his  ship,  he  had  been  com- 
pelled to  leave  Nassau  without  landing  a  portion  of  his 
cargo,  and  announced  that  if  they  refused  to  clear  the 
vessel,  he  would  abandon  it  where  it  lay  at  anchor,  hold 
them  responsible  for  the  consequences,  and  take  his 
crew  in  a  body  to  Havana  before  the  Consul-General 
to  protest  against  their  conduct.  It  was  a  bold  stroke ; 
but  Captain  Colton  knew  the  men  with  whom  he  was 
dealing.     They  promptly  cleared  the  ship. 

More  of  this  spirit  of  aggressiveness  is  needed  in 


264  TROPICAL    AMERICA 

Cuba.  For  two  generations  American  diplomacy  has 
been  too  lax  in  resenting  Spanish  exactions.  In  the 
Virginius  affair,  the  courageous  English  commander 
who  trained  the  guns  of  his  ship  upon  Santiago  and 
threatened  to  destroy  the  city,  if  the  executions  in  the 
prison  were  not  immediately  suspended,  taught  Ameri- 
cans how  to  secure  respect  for  a  flag;  but  the  State 
Department  frittered  away  its  resources  and  allowed 
itself  to  be  duped  and  defrauded  out  of  adequate  repara- 
tion. When  the  United  States  chooses  to  exert  its 
power  wrongs  are  at  once  redressed  in  Cuba.  More 
warnings  are  needed  like  President  Cleveland's  proc- 
lamation in  1886,  threatening  to  reimpose  the  retalia- 
tory duties  on  Spanish  bottoms,  if  American  ships  were 
not  accorded  their  full  privileges  under  the  commercial 
agreement  of  1884.  That  menace  sufficed  to  liberate 
the  forces  of  public  opinion  on  the  island,  to  alarm 
Spanish  ship-owners,  and  to  compel  the  government  at 
Madrid  to  accede  to  the  American  demand.  Neverthe- 
less the  officials  have  persevered  in  violating  the  princi- 
ple of  equality  of  flags,  which  was  the  basis  of  that 
agreement,  and  they  have  not  been  compelled  to  desist. 
Ordinarily  there  is  not  strength  enough  in  the  bow 
of  American  diplomacy.  Spanish-American  countries 
understand  this,  and  constantly  take  advantage  of  the 
indulgence  and  good-nature  of  the  State  Department. 

The  Spanish  custom  officials,  for  example,  have 
devised  an  ingenious  method  of  harassing  American 
shipping  interests  by  a  system  of  fines  imposed  for  triv- 
ial clerical  errors  and  shortages  of  cargo,  when  there  is 
no  intent  to  defraud  the  government  of  the  island.  In 
the  United  States  penalties  are  never  imposed  when 
there  has  evidently  been  no  breach  of  good  faith  on  the 


THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD  265 

part  of  the  shipper;  but  in  Cuba  advantage  is  taken  of 
every  technical  irregularity.  The  moiety  system,  by 
which  the  informer  receives  a  portion  of  the  fine,  stim- 
ulates the  zeal  of  custom-house  operators.  Diplomatic 
correspondence  has  been  carried  on  for  years  in  relation 
to  these  cases  without  effect.  The  customs  officials 
have  their  living  to  make  by  their  wits  at  the  expense 
of  American  ship-owners.  Although  the  commerce  of 
the  island  is  almost  wholly  with  the  United  States,  and 
largely  under  the  American  flag,  Washington  diplo- 
macy seems  to  be  helpless  to  enforce  shipping  rights 
secured  by  treaty. 

Cienfuegos,  the  terminus  of  the  American  line  of 
steamers,  and  of  the  western  railway  system  of  Cuba, 
is  a  modern  town  built  since  the  present  century 
opened.  It  has  a  fine  harbor  and  a  growing  trade,  and 
is  the  commercial  centre  of  thirty  of  the  largest  sugar 
plantations  of  the  island.  While  having  only  one-half 
of  the  population  of  Santiago,  it  is  a  cleaner,  more 
cheerful,  and  more  interesting  town.  It  has  excellent 
hotel  accommodations  for  the  latitude,  and  with  sugar 
and  tobacco  plantations  near  by,  offers  much  enter- 
tainment to  strangers.  Sunday  is  the  gala-day  of  the 
week,  as  is  customary  in  Spanish-American  towns. 
The  clergy  are  so  accommodating  as  to  have  the  last 
service  in  the  cathedral  over  by  nine  or  ten  o'clock  in 
the  morning.  This  leaves  nearly  a  full  day  for  cock- 
fights, horse-racing,  and  the  promenade  in  the  plaza, 
which  has  a  broad  stone  walk  lined  at  the  sides  with 
benches  for  the  accommodation  of  chaperons.  It  is  a 
handsome  square,  well  lighted  by  electricity  and  bor- 
dered by  the  best  buildings  of  the  town, —  the  cathedral, 
theatre,  public  library,  a  large  club-house,  and  a  popu- 
lar caf6. 


266  *  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

This  Sunday  evening  promenade  is  one  of  the  social 
institutions  of  Cuba.  During  the  week  young  women 
are  not  allowed  to  go  out  alone,  but  are  constantly 
watched,  kept  under  rigid  restraint,  and  invariably 
accompanied  by  their  elders  or  by  servants  in  their 
walks  about  the  town.  This  system  of  supervision 
would  be  intolerably  irksome  to  the  mothers  and  guar- 
dians of  the  blooming  senoritas,  if  marriage  were  not 
arranged  at  a  very  early  age.  At  thirteen  or  fourteen 
a  Cuban  girl  is  supposed  to  be  ready  for  marriage,  and 
a  match  is  made  for  her  by  her  parents  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible. Meanwhile,  during  the  transition  stage,  she  is 
closely  watched,  and  not  allowed  to  make  acquaintance 
with  men.  She  is  kept  under  guard  during  the  week, 
but  on  Sunday  night  she  is  exhibited  to  all  comers. 
The  mothers  and  chaperons  accompany  the  giddy  young 
creatures  to  the  plaza,  and  leave  them  at  liberty  to  stroll 
up  and  down  the  stone  walk  in  company  with  girls  of 
their  acquaintance,  while  they  themselves  occupy  the 
side  benches  where  they  can  overlook  the  scene  and 
keep  their  eyes  upon  them.  The  whole  town  goes  out 
to  see  the  show.  For  three  hours  all  the  young  unmar- 
ried women  tramp  up  and  down,  dressed  in  their  pretti- 
est gowns  and  displaying  their  charms,  while  hundreds 
of  young  men  join  the  procession  and  exchange  glances, 
if  not  words,  with  tliem.  Anything  like  an  incipient 
flirtation  or  an  indiscretion  brings  the  stern  mother  upon 
the  scene,  and  the  foolish,  saucy  girl  is  dragged  home- 
ward prematurely  and  kept  indoors  the  following  Sun- 
day. Hour  after  hour  the  promenaders  are  in  motion, 
girls  of  thirteen  and  fourteen  being  the  belles  of  the 
walk,  and  a  great  concourse  of  carefully  dressed  and 
profusely  powdered  men  watching  them  with  eager  in- 
terest.    It  is  the  Cuban  Vanity  Fair. 


THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD  267 

Notwithstanding  the  decline  in  the  fortunes  of  the 
planters,  their  houses  are  very  agreeable  interiors,  and. 
their  hospitality  is  unaffected  and  charming.  It  is 
difficult  for  a  foreigner  to  break  the  ice,  and  to  estab- 
lish confidential  relations  with  the  planters ;  but  when 
this  has  been  done  invitations  follow,  and  there  are 
frequent  glimpses  of  Cuban  home-life.  So  rigid  are 
the  requirements  of  custom  and  etiquette,  that  it  is 
only  at  home,  and  in  the  presence  of  members  of  the 
household,  that  well-born  daughters  are  to  be  seen  at 
all.  It  is  only  in  the  conventional  reception-room, 
furnished  with  long  rows  of  cane-seat  rocking-chairs, 
that  their  acquaintance  can  be  made,  and  then  only 
under  watchful  supervision.  They  are  little  women, 
short  in  stature,  plump  and  well  rounded  in  figure, 
graceful  and  supple  in  movement,  with  dark  eyes  that 
flash  at  night  and  melt  by  day.  Like  the  beautiful 
wild  flowers  of  the  Cuban  woods,  they  mature  very 
early,  and  they  fade  as  rapidly.  The  prettiest  girl  will 
be  plain  long  before  she  is  thirty.  Handsome  women 
in  middle  life  are  never  seen  in  the  tropics,  but  only  in 
the  temperate  zone.  The  beauty  and  charm  of  Cuban 
women  is  evanescent,  but  real  and  irresistible,  while  it 
lasts. 

Cienfuegos  is  one  of  the  centres  of  the  sugar  indus- 
try, and  many  of  the  finest  plantations  and  mills  are  in 
close  communication  with  it  either  by  railway  or  water. 
I  was  so  fortunate  as  to  receive  an  invitation  to  visit 
Soledad,  which  has  the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the 
best-managed  plantations  on  the  island.  It  produced 
in  1891  about  14,000,000  pounds  of  sugar.  Other 
plantations  largely  exceed  it  in  cultivated  area  and  me- 
chanical resources,  the  Constaneia  having  a  product  of 


268  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

40,000,000  pounds;  but  Soledad  is  conducted  on  scien- 
tific principles  and  with  American  thrift,  thoroughness, 
and  organization,  so  that  there  is  the  greatest  saving 
in  the  cost  of  production,  and  the  largest  margin  for 
profit  on  the  investment.  At  one  plantation  near  Ma- 
tanzas  and  at  another  in  the  Cienfuegos  district  the 
cane,  instead  of  being  ground  by  milling  machinery,  is 
cut  up  into  small  pieces,  and  the  sugar  is  worked  out 
of  it  by  water  by  a  process  of  diffusion  similar  to  that 
employed  in  the  manufacture  of  beet  sugar.  It  would 
be  a  singular  result  if  this  method  were  to  be  adopted 
generally  in  Cuba  as  a  means  of  cheapening  and  enlarg- 
ing the  cane  product.  One  of  the  most  experienced 
planters  in  Matanzas  told  me  that  he  believed  that  this 
would  be  one  of  the  effects  of  free  coal,  which  is  pro- 
vided for  by  the  reciprocity  treaty.  The  diffusion 
process  involves  the  necessity  of  burning  coal,  and  so 
long  as  a  heavy  duty  was  imposed  upon  it  economical 
production  was  impracticable.  With  free  coal,  and  the 
iron-ore  steamers  available  for  bringing  it  from  Pennsyl- 
vania at  low  freight  charges,  a  revolution  in  the  current 
processes  of  making  cane  sugar  may  be  impending. 

The  struggle  between  cane  and  beet  will  inevi- 
tably be  one  of  the  sharpest  industrial  conflicts  known 
in  the  history  of  manufacture.  Whether  Cuban  cane 
can  hold  its  own  against  European  and  American  beet, 
is  a  question  which  not  even  experts  in  the  business 
venture  to  answer.  But  one  thing  is  certain:  if  the 
cane-sugar  industry  of  the  Spanish  West  Indies  is  to 
keep  its  ground  against  the  destructive  competition  of 
the  bounty-fed  beet,  it  can  only  be  through  processes  of 
economical  production,  and  with  the  improved  machin- 
ery employed  in  plantations  like  Soledad.     Not  only  is 


THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD  269 

the  American  market  needed  for  Cuban  sugar,  but 
American  capital,  system,  and  habits  of  organization 
are  required  as  well. 

Fine  tobacco  plantations  are  also  to  be  seen  in  the 
Manicaragua  valley  near  Cienfuegos.  The  methods  of 
cultivation  and  curing  are  uniform  throughout  Cuba, 
the  characteristic  differences  in  the  color  and  flavor 
of  the  leaf  being  largely  due  to  qualities  of  soil.  The 
world  smokes  too  much  to  enjoy  the  luxury  of  the  pure 
Havanas  of  earlier  days.  The  district  where  the  choic- 
est leaf  is  produced  in  the  Vuelta  de  Abajo  is  of  limited 
area.  It  is  surrounded  by  belts  in  which  leaf  of  excel- 
lent color,  but  lacking  in  delicacy  of  aroma,  is  produced. 
It  is  soil  rather  than  climate  that  regulates  the  quality 
of  tobacco,  and  while  the  plant  grows  readily  through- 
out Western  Cuba,  and  in  certain  districts  near  Matan- 
zas,  Cienfuegos,  and  Santiago,  it  is  only  from  a  com- 
paratively small  area  that  the  best  leaf  can  be  obtained, 
and  then  only  when  the  plants  are  trimmed  after 
budding.  The  demand  for  well-known  brands  is  very 
great,  and  it  has  to  be  met  in  some  way.  I  was  told 
in  Santiago  and  Cienfuegos,  that  much  of  the  tobacco 
raised  there  was  sent  to  Havana,  and  made  up  as  cigars 
passing  under  the  best  names.  The  deterioration  in 
the  quality  of  Cuban  cigars  imported  into  the  New 
York  market  during  recent  years  is  undoubtedly  to  be 
accounted  for  by  the  artificial  widening  of  the  Vuelta 
de  Abajo  preserves,  so  as  to  include  various  hot  tobac- 
cos, similar  in  color,  but  inferior  in  aroma.  There  are 
large  areas  cultivated  under  contracts  by  which  the 
producers  receive  fixed  prices  for  plants  according  to 
their  height.  This  system,  with  the  indiscriminate 
method  of  drying  plants  instead  of   sorting  and  then 


270  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

curing  the  leaves,  is  promoting  deterioration  of  quality. 
While  the  tobacco  produce  of  the  island  is  increasing 
steadily  in  volume,  the  planters  and  manufacturers  are 
trading  largely  upon  their  former  prestige. 

From  Cienfuegos  there  are  two  routes  to  Havana. 
One  is  by  railway,  involving  an  early  start,  four 
changes  of  cars,  and  a  full  day's  ride.  The  other  is 
by  steamer  to  Batabano,  requiring  a  night  and  a  morn- 
ing on  the  sea,  and  a  two  hours'  journey  by  rail  across 
the  island.  The  second  is  preferable  on  many  accounts, 
and,  especially,  because  the  steamer  scenes  are  character- 
istic of  the  country,  and,  therefore,  especially  interesting 
to  strangers.  Each  steamer  carries  cattle  in  the  lower 
deck,  and  a  motley  company  of  Spanish  soldiers  and 
noisy  Cubans.  The  soldiers  camp  out  on  deck,  and 
lie  mummied  in  their  blankets  while  asleep,  and  in  the 
morning  they  are  fed  from  kettles,  the  spoon  passing 
from  man  to  man  very  much  as  the  pipe  of  peace  is 
smoked  in  an  Indian  camp.  They  are  a  noisy  rabble, 
shouting,  gesticulating,  and  singing  when  they  are  not 
sunning  themselves  on  deck  with  their  blankets  wrapped 
about  their  heads  like  clumsy  hoods.  The  Cubans  do 
not  fraternize  with  the  soldiers,  but  remain  at  the  other 
end  of  the  boat,  singing,  gambling  in  the  saloon,  and 
linoferina-  affectionatelv  over  their  cocktails.  A  dozen 
nuns  are  among  them,  watching  the  roistering  scenes 
with  unaffected  interest,  and  cautiously  retiring  to  a 
quiet  corner  when  the  uproar  becomes  scandalous.  As 
the  steamer  approaches  the  wharf  at  Batabano  there  is 
a  medley  of  singing,  shouting,  and  swearing,  with  the 
accompaniment  of  accordions,  guitars,  and  fifes. 
Cubans,  like  all  Spanish  Americans,  are  passionately 
fond  of  noise  and  excitement.  It  is  what  makes  their 
life  worth  living. 


THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD  271 

A  train  is  already  drawn  up  to  carry  the  passengers 
of  the  crowded  steamer  to  Havana;  but  it  is  a  long, 
di-eary  time  before  it  is  in  motion.  Tliere  are  two 
engines  at  hand  and  switches  conveniently  placed  for 
the  rapid  making-up  of  trains;  but  neither  one  nor  the 
other  is  used.  A  pair  of  oxen  is  employed  in  hauling 
one  car  after  another  into  place,  while  the  engines  stand 
motionless  on  the  track.  Why  the  engines  are  not 
brought  into  use  to  facilitate  the  operation,  and  to  start 
the  train  on  time,  the  most  ingenious  Yankee  will  be 
unable  to  find  out.  Possibly  it  is  because  Columbus 
used  oxen  for  making  up  his  trains  when  he  first  visited 
Cuba,  and  the  Spanish  ruling  class  does  not  favor 
radical  reforms. 

A  railway  ride  across  Cuba  from  Batabano  discloses 
vistas  of  undulating  levels  and  moors  under  poor  cul- 
tivation, relieved  only  by  sentinel  palms  of  the  royal 
guard,  or  by  encampments  of  palmettos,  or  by  strag- 
gling cabins  with  palm-leaf  roofs.  Raptures  over  tropi- 
cal vegetation  and  semi-Saracenic  architecture  are  tran- 
sitory vagaries  in  Havana.  The  harbor,  with  its  long 
line  of  high-bastioned  fortifications  flanking  the  low 
peninsula  upon  which  the  city  stands,  is  an  imposing- 
pageant  especially  under  a  moonlit  sky;  but  the  coun- 
try about  the  city  is  flat  and  unimpressive.  The  laurels 
and  other  shade  trees  in  the  avenues  and  plazas  have  an 
ill-nourished  and  stunted  look.  The  Bishop's  garden 
in  Tulipan  was  once  a  lovely  retreat,  but  it  is  now  neg- 
lected ground.  The  finest  drives  in  Havana  are  those 
to  the  Cerro  and  to  Vedado ;  but  there  are  few  luxuriant 
tropical  trees  to  be  seen  by  the  way,  and  not  many 
orange  groves  and  banana  clumps.  The  Botanical 
Gardens,  and  the  grounds  about  the  Captain-General's 


272  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

country-seat,  offer  the  only  really  satisfactory  glimpse 
of  tropical  foliage  to  be  obtained  in  Havana, 

Cuba,  while  the  most  accessible,  is  also  the  most 
representative  foreign  country  which  Americans  can 
visit  on  their  own  continent.  Havana,  whether  more 
or  less  Cuban  than  it  is  Spanish,  is  a  city  utterly  unlike 
any  large  American  centre  of  population.  It  is  the 
last  stronghold  of  Spain  in  the  New  World  where  her 
empire  was  once  undisputed.  There  are  vivid  contrasts 
of  architecture,  foliage,  and  customs.  From  the  moment 
of  passing  the  grim  Morro,  the  Cabanas  fortifications, 
and  the  battery  at  the  Point,  the  visitor  is  conscious  of 
being  among  an  alien  race,  whose  sympathies,  manner 
of  life,  ideas  of  morals  and  religion,  habits  and  recrea- 
tions, are  not  in  accord  with  his  own.  Havana  is  the 
most  distinctively  Spanish  capital  in  Tropical  America. 
A  Spaniard  fresh  from  the  historic  Peninsula  feels  more 
at  home  there  than  anywhere  else  in  the  New  World. 

I  went  to  Havana  with  a  strong  feeling  of  sympathy 
for  a  people  gloomy  and  despairing,  lying  bound  and 
fettered  in  the  outer  darkness  of  political  despotism, 
overawed  by  a  foreign  garrison  of  60,000  soldiers, 
despoiled  of  their  liberties,  denied  the  rights  of  public 
meeting  and  a  free  press,  subjected  to  unceasing  police 
espionage  and  the  risks  of  arbitrary  arrest,  and  plundered 
by  tax-gatherers  and  lawless  bandits.  I  found  before 
a  fortnight  had  passed  that  much  of  my  sympathy  was 
misplaced.  Cuba  was  very  different  from  what  I  had 
imagined  it  to  be.  It  was  suffering  less  from  political 
tyranny  than  from  violations  of  economic  law.  The 
people  were  poor,  but  not  so  unhappy  that  they  failed 
to  get  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  out  of  life.  They  were 
denied  autonomy  and  representation ;  but  they  had  more 


THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD  273 

personal  liberty  and  suffered  less  from  ecclesiastical 
bigotry  and  irresponsible  power  than  the  population  of 
Spain.  The  main  body  of  soldiers  in  the  island  is  a 
volunteer  force  of  perhaps  40,000  or  50,000  men.  It  is 
called  a  Spanish  garrison,  and  is  the  main  support  of 
the  government  in  an  emergency;  but  it  is  not  under 
pay,  and  it  is  recruited  from  the  native  population.  It 
is  required  to  drill  regularly  and  to  guard  the  custom- 
houses and  government  buildings.  Whether  it  can  be 
depended  upon  to  take  the  part  of  the  Administration 
against  the  people  in  a  revolution  is  an  open  question. 
When  one  learns  that  the  main  force  by  which  the 
people  are  held  under  the  galling  yoke  of  a  tyranny  fre- 
quently described  as  worse  than  the  White  Czar's  is 
manned  by  hack-drivers,  porters,  street-pedlers,  bar- 
bers, restaurant-clerks,  and  salesmen  in  the  shops,  his 
preconception  of  the  terrors  of  military  government  is 
sensibly  modified.  The  fortifications  at  the  entrance 
of  the  harbors,  some  of  them  splendid  relics  of  the 
science  of  Vauban  and  his  school,  are  occupied  by  reg- 
ulars, and  the  foreign  force  is  brought  constantly  under 
the  public  eye  and  ostentatiously  shifted  from  one 
quarter  of  the  island  to  another;  but  there  is  nothing 
formidable  in  the  military  armaments  of  Spain  in  Cuba. 
The  island  is  not  overrun  with  a  horde  of  foreign 
soldiery. 

It  is  not  the  Havana  of  the  devastating  Patriot  War, 
nor  of  the  barbarous  executions  of  the  Virginius,  that  is 
seen  to-day.  Public  meetings  are  held  whenever  notice 
is  filed  with  the  authorities,  and  speech  is  reasonably 
free.  There  is  an  anti([uated  press  law,  but  it  is  not 
enforced.  The  day  when  journalists  were  compelled  to 
send  to  the  authorities  printed  proofs  of  what  they  had 


274  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

written  has  passed.  Arbitrary  arrests  for  political 
offences  have  ceased  in  large  measure.  There  is  free 
access  to  the  courts  of  justice.  There  are  few  glaring 
abuses  of  political  administration.  There  is  a  deliber- 
ate effort  to  reconcile  the  people  to  Spanish  rule,  and  to 
efface  the  terrible  memories  of  a  civil  war  conspicuous 
for  atrocity.  Police  espionage  is  not  what  it  was.  Life 
and  liberty  are  not  dependent  upon  the  caprices  of  the 
Captain-General.  Slowly  and  laboriously  the  island 
has  been  making  progress  in  its  political  and  social 
conditions  during  the  last  decade.  Cuba  and  Porto 
Rico  are  the  remnant  of  a  once  mighty  empire  won  by 
Spanish  genius  and  courage.  Spain  is  bent  upon 
retaining  the  last  stronghold.  Revolution  is  to  be 
averted  by  conciliatory  administration  and  promises  of 
political  reform.  In  the  march  of  progress  Cuba  is 
moving,  not  standing  still. 

There  is  fulness  of  life  in  the  Cuban  capital,  with 
exuberance  of  animal  spirits  and  light-hearted  gaiety. 
There  are  few  careworn  faces  to  be  seen  in  the  crowded 
streets,  the  busy  arcades,  and  the  spacious  plazas.  The 
caf^s  and  restaurants  are  thronged  day  and  night  with 
a  pleasure-loving,  rollicking  population.  Around  the 
shabby  little  statue  of  Isabella  gathers  nightly  a  motley 
concourse,  joyous  in  mood  and  mercurial  in  temper,  to 
listen  to  the  feeble  murmur  of  a  Spanish  band,  to  traffic 
in  lottery  tickets,  and  to  laugh  and  chatter  by  the  hour 
over  frivolous  jests.  What  Paris  is  to  France,  Havana 
is  to  Cuba.  It  is  the  centre  of  the  island's  life,  activi- 
ties, and  recreation.  The  times  may  be  hard,  but  to  the 
Lydian  measures  of  their  favorite  city  Cubans  disport 
themselves  with  intensity  of  enjoyment.  In  Havana 
are  the  best  club-houses,  and  play  runs  high  in  gilded 


THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD  275 

gaming-houses.  The  city  has  the  bustle  of  the  daily 
movement  of  a  population  of  250,000,  and  under  the 
glare  of  electric  light  it  loses  the  aspect  of  faded  grand- 
eur, and  is  again  the  most  brilliant  caj)ital  of  Spanish 
America.  There  is  more  of  genuine  Spanish  blood  in 
Havana  than  in  Buenos  Ayres,  Mexico,  Santiago  de 
Chili,  Montevideo,  or  Lima.  It  has  been  estimated 
by  Mr.  Froude,  that  there  are  in  Cuba  alone  ten  times 
as  many  Spaniards  as  there  are  English  and  Scotch  in 
all  the  West  Indies.  Cuba  is  essentially  Spanish  in 
blood,  customs,  vices,  and  pleasures.  Whatever  else 
the  Spaniard  may  do,  he  never  mopes ;  and  Havana, 
with  all  the  evils  of  misgovernment,  and  all  the  hard 
pressure  of  economic  reverses,  is  cheery,  bright,  and 
overflowing  with  good-nature. 

Corrupt  and  incapable  administration  has  always  been 
a  Spanish  characteristic.  Cuba  has  been  reduced  to  its 
present  extremities  largely  through  the  rapacity  of  the 
governing  class  in  former  years.  If  there  has  been  a 
marked  improvement  during  recent  years,  so  that  the 
Captain-General  now  aims  to  return  to  Spain  only  with 
what  he  has  saved  from  his  salary,  and  the  burden  of 
direct  taxation  has  been  decreased  rather  than  increased, 
it  is  because  the  industrial  resources  of  the  island  have 
been  exhausted  through  old-time  methods  of  plunder- 
ing the  population  and  systematic  violation  of  economic 
laws.  The  orange  has  been  pressed  dry;  even  Spanish 
administration  does  not  attempt  to  squeeze  the  seeds 
remaining  in  the  spongy  pulp.  For  this  reason  sugar 
planters  and  tobacco  farmers  are  now  frank  in  admitting 
that  the  direct  taxes  on  their  land  and  industries  are  not 
unduly  high.  It  is  the  burden  of  indirect  taxation  by 
which  the  cost  of  living  is  heavily  increased,  and  the 


■21Q  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

exchangeable  value  of  sugar  and  tobacco  correspondingly 
reduced,  that  has  been  overwhelming  this  rich  and  fer- 
tile island  with  ruin. 

The  country  is  impoverished ;  the  palaces  of  the  nobles 
are  deserted ;  there  has  been  an  extraordinary  shrinkage 
of  real  estate  valuations ;  the  treasury  is  exhausted 
with  extravagant  payments  for  an  inefficient  and  cor- 
rupt civil  service,  and  the  interest  on  the  war  debt; 
and  the  municipalities  are  without  means  for  ordinary 
public  improvements  and  sanitary  regulations.  Havana 
is  capable  of  becoming  what  Humboldt  found  it  in  his 
day  —  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  imposing  capitals 
of  the  world.  The  old  city  was  built  of  enduring  stone 
which  has  grown  harder  with  the  lapse  of  time.  The 
cathedral,  churches  and  public  buildings  were  fash- 
ioned when  severe  and  simple  architecture,  without 
meretricious  ornamentation,  was  the  requirement  of 
classic  taste  in  Spain.  Even  the  great  prison,  which  is 
the  most  prominent  object  from  the  harbor,  is  not  with- 
out good  lines.  The  newer  portions  of  the  town  are 
well  laid  out  with  broad,  shaded  avenues,  frequent 
squares  and  breathing  places,  and  a  spacious  alameda. 
Even  in  its  ruined  estate  when  public  grounds  are  neg- 
lected, street  pavements  in  need  of  repair,  and  the  whole 
town  is  fairly  perishing  for  lack  of  fresh  paint,  poor, 
faded  Havana  has  an  air  of  distinction  and  even  grand- 
eur. With  good  administration  the  city  could  be 
transformed  in  a  decade.  A  canal  constructed  so  as  to 
let  the  tides  into  the  back  bay  would  flush  out  a  harbor 
that  is  now  a  cesspool,  and  promote  the  healthfulness 
of  the  town.  Moderate  expenditures  could  repair  the 
crumbling  plaster  of  the  public  buildings,  replace  the 
broken  lines  of  shade-trees  in  the  avenues,  and  restore 


THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD  277 

the  brightness  and  glory  of  the  Cuban  capital.  Havana 
now  awaits,  like  a  queen  in  tattered,  patched,  and 
soiled  robes,  the  turn  of  the  wheel  which  will  reinvest 
her  with  the  dignity  of  her  prosperous  days  of  power 
and  wealth.  So  long  as  old-time  Spanish  administration 
continues  in  force,  it  is  a  lottery  with  blanks. 

Signs  of  exhaustion  and  impoverishment  which  are 
conspicuous  in  Havana  are  multiplied  in  Matanzas, 
where  the  decadence  of  a  once  prosperous  and  beautiful 
city  is  a  melancholy  spectacle.  In  its  best  estate  it  was 
a  luxurious  centre  of  wealth  and  fashion  as  well  as  of 
productive  industry  and  commerce.  Surrounded  with 
sugar,  coffee,  and  tobacco  plantations,  it  ranked  after 
Havana  as  the  busiest  hive  in  Cuba.  All  the  indus- 
tries of  the  island  were  carried  on  with  success  on  the 
verdant  hillsides  and  undulating  plains  encircling  its 
spacious  and  picturesque  harbor.  The  Yumuri  Valley 
was  dotted  with  country-seats,  where  rich  planters 
entertained  their  guests  with  generous  hospitality. 
The  San  Carlos  Pasco  was  blocked  with  carriages  in 
the  afternoon,  and  the  evenings  were  filled  with  gaiety 
and  sumptuous  entertainment.  All  is  now  changed. 
Emancipation  and  the  insurrection  impoverished  the 
rich  planters.  Many  of  the  finest  estates  passed  into 
the  hands  of  Spanish  immigrants  and  adventurers, who 
have  been  condemned  to  maintain  an  exhausting  strug- 
gle against  a  system  grounded  upon  violations  of  eco- 
nomic law.  Planters  who  have  escaped  confiscation  have 
witnessed  the  gradual  shrinkage  of  the  profits  of  their 
industries  and  the  collapse  of  their  fortunes.  Depre- 
ciation of  values  is  even  greater  in  Matanzas  than  in 
"Havana.  Country  seats  which  were  conspicuous  for 
elegance  and  social  festivity  are  now  bare,  silent,  and 


278  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

falling  into  ruin.  The  San  Carlos  drive  is  a  neglected 
and  unfrequented  road.  Matanzas  is  a  centre  of  unre- 
munerative  commerce,  a  city  haunted  with  memories  of 
its  former  prosperity.  The  vivid  sunlight  lays  bare 
mercilessly  the  faded  glories  of  the  town  and  the 
ravages  of  commercial  ruin.  By  moonlight,  one  needs 
to  be  told  of  the  neglected  condition  of  these  once 
famous  drives  and  promenades,  and  the  pathos  of  faded 
grandeur  and  exhausted  fortunes  makes  only  a  transi- 
tory impression  upon  a  sympathetic  mind.  San  Seve- 
rino  Castle  and  the  ruined  fortifications  are  enveloped 
with  silvery  radiance.  The  San  Juan  River,  with  its 
dingy  lines  of  crumbling  warehouses,  is  softened  and 
transfigured.  The  broad  bay,  with  its  sparkling  ship- 
ping lights,  and  the  ocean  beyond  foaming  upon  a  coral 
ledge,  are  vistas  of  singular  beauty. 

Cuba  was  designed  by  nature  to  be  the  most  beauti- 
ful garden,  and  the  richest  treasure-house,  of  the  race 
dominating  the  industrial  fortunes  of  North  America. 
Nature  proposed;  man  disposed.  The  island  has  been 
brought  to  the  verge  of  economic  ruin,  from  which  com- 
mercial union  with  the  American  market  opens  the  only 
way  of  escape.  The  purchase  of  Cuba  either  in  Jeffer- 
son's or  Buchanan's  time  would  have  retarded,  possibly 
have  paralyzed,  the  anti-slavery  movement.  It  would 
have  been  a  grave  calamity  for  the  United  States,  but 
it  would  have  transformed  the  fortunes  of  the  island. 
Cuba  under  American  administration  would  have  been 
to-day  one  of  the  richest  and  most  prosperous  countries 
of  the  world.  Mountain-sides  which  within  a  few 
years  have  barely  been  scratched  by  mining  engineers, 
would  have  been  in  a  high  state  of  development.  For- 
ests which   are  now  either  trackless  or  the  haunts  of 


THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD  279 

lawless  marauders,  would  have  been  paying  tribute  to 
the  commerce  of  nations.  Coffee,  sugar,  and  tobacco 
plantations,  under  intelligent  supervision  and  with 
improved  machinery,  would  have  quadrupled  in  value. 
Yellow  fever  would  have  been  stamped  out  by  sanitary 
science,  and  the  picturesque  mountains  of  the  south 
coast  converted  into  popular  winter  resorts  for  northern 
invalids.  Every  industry  of  the  island  would  have 
received  an  invigorating  impulse.  The  past  cannot  be 
undone;  but  the  future  of  Cuba  is  crowded  with  oppor- 
tunities and  weighted  with  responsibilities  for  Ameri- 
cans. They  have  on  their  southern  seaboard  another 
California,  which  may  neither  be  purchased,  nor  con- 
quered, nor  stolen,  yet  may  be  linked  indissolubly  with 
the  American  market  in  the  bonds  of  commercial  union. 
If  Cuban  scenery  be  disajipointing  from  nakedness  of 
hillsides,  and  lack  of  variety  in  foliage  and  farming 
lands,  it  is  not  through  any  fault  of  nature.  There  is 
no  other  garden  in  the  West  Indies  like  this  highly 
favored  island.  There  is  no  defect  either  of  climate  or 
soil.  It  is  human  folly  that  is  responsible  for  the 
meagre  development  of  the  agricultural  resources  of  the 
island.  Not  even  Southern  California  has  a  wider 
range  of  fruits  than  Cuba.  There  is  a  soil  of  varied 
qualities,  and  so  rich  that  it  onlj^  needs  to  be  scratched 
with  plough  or  hoe  to  be  made  to  yield  a  hundred  fold. 
There  is  an  abundance  of  red  earth,  impregnated  witli 
iron,  which  is  the  natural  bed  for  a  coffee  farm.  There 
are  broad  levels  of  black  soil,  where  sugar-cane  will 
flourish  as  in  no  other  quarter  of  the  world.  If  the 
choicest  lands  for  tobacco  are  of  limited  area,  there  are 
most  extensive  belts  where  leaf  of  fine  color  can  be 
raised.     Corn  while  growing  to  half-size  can  be  made 


280  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

to  bear  all  the  year.  There  are  rice  and  cotton  lands 
which  can  be  cultivated  on  a  large  scale  most  produc- 
tively. The  forests  are  rich,  not  only  in  mahogany, 
rosewood,  ebony,  and  cedar,  but  also  in  dye-woods  like 
fustian;  and  in  the  south  and  east  the  mountain 
ranges  are  stocked  with  iron  and  manganese.  All 
these  resources  are  made  available  by  undulating 
plains,  where  railways  can  be  cheaply  built,  and  by  a 
coast-line  of  2000  miles  bordered  with  capacious  harbors. 

Four  centuries  have  been  rounded  out  since  the  dis- 
coveries of  Columbus,  yet  Cuba  to-day  is  one  of  the 
least  developed  countries  of  the  New  World.  Out  of 
a  total  area  of  43,000  square  miles  barely  more  than 
one-tenth  is  under  cultivation.  At  the  western  end  of 
the  island  there  is  a  population  exceeding  1,000,000, 
but  the  remaining  districts,  of  which  Puerto  Principe 
and  Santiago  are  the  capitals,  are  practically  unsettled, 
having  between  them  less  than  500,000  whites,  negroes, 
and  Chinese.  A  transformation  of  administration  and 
economic  conditions  is  needed  in  order  that  there  may 
be  a  new  and  reinvigorated  Cuba.  The  Spanish  com- 
mercial system  has  been  like  the  wild  Indian  fig  of  the 
island  entwining  the  monarcli  trees  of  the  forest  and 
paralyzing  them  with  its  serpentine  embrace.  The 
destroying  fig  must  first  be  uprooted  before  the  tree 
can  have  the  soil,  light,  air,  and  moisture  needed  for 
its  normal  growth. 

The  Spanish  West  Indies  by  retaining  slavery  for  a 
generation  after  emancipation  had  been  decreed  in  the 
British  Islands,  were  enabled  to  obtain  as  marked  an 
ascendency  in  the  production  of  cane  sugar  as  Brazil 
secured  by  forced  labor  in  raising  coffee  for  the  markets 
of  the  world.     While  the    British  West   Indies  were 


THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD  281 

struggling  to  find  some  substitute  for  the  uncertain 
labor  of  emancipated  slaves,  the  sugar  industry  of  Cuba 
Avas  making  rapid  progress.  When  Jamaica,  Trinidad, 
and  British  Guiana,  after  experimenting  unsuccess- 
fully with  free  colored  laborers  imported  from  Africa 
and  other  countries,  finally  obtained  coolies  from  the 
East  Indies,  emancipation  was  proclaimed  in  Cuba 
under  conditions  which  enabled  the  planters  to  adapt 
themselves  to  the  change  and  to  profit  by  the  experi- 
ence of  their  rivals.  Slavery,  while  it  exposed  the 
white  population  of  Cuba  to  less  apprehension  than  in 
the  British  West  Indies,  where  the  European  descend- 
ants were  hopelessly  outnumbered  by  the  blacks,  con- 
fined the  island  practically  to  two  industries,  sugar  and 
tobacco.  Even  tobacco  had  fallen  to  a  subordinate  and 
greatly  inferior  level.  As  slavery  prevented  diversifi- 
cation of  industry  in  Brazil  and  the  American  Southern 
States,  making  coffee  the  chief  staple  in  one,  and  cotton 
in  the  other,  so  also  it  left  Cuba  largely  dependent 
upon  sugar.  This  is  the  economic  curse  of  slavery 
wherever  it  has  existed,  and  the  evil  is  greatest  in  the 
West  Indies,  because  the  cane  industry  has  been  sub- 
jected to  the  tremendous  pressure  of  competition  with 
beet  sugar.  Brazilian  coffee  and  American  cotton  have 
continued  under  free  labor  to  dominate  the  market  of 
the  world,  but  West  Indian  sugar  has  been  displaced  in 
Europe  and  can  be  sold  to-day  mainly  in  the  United 
States.  That  is  the  last  and  only  great  market  which 
is  left  for  the  chief  staple  of  Cuba.  The  effect  of  tariff 
enactments  by  which  Spain  was  protected  at  the  ex- 
pense of  Cuba  was  to  compel  the  island  to  buy  its  sup- 
plies in  a  dear  market,  where  only  a  little  of  its  sugar 
was  sold,  and  thus  to  depreciate  the  purchasing  power 


282  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

of  its  chief  staple.  This  extraordinary  economic  system 
was  aptly  compared  by  Consul-General  Williams,  in 
one  of  many  talks  with  me,  to  a  turbine  wheel.  The 
exports  of  Cuba  went  to  the  United  States,  but  their 
purchasing  power  in  exchange  was  diverted  to  Spain, 
which  did  not  receive  the  initial  impulse. 

Yankee  shrewdness  has  been  no  match  for  Spanish 
guile  during  recent  years  of  Cuban  diplomacy.  Never 
was  one  government  more  completely  outwitted  by 
another  than  the  United  States  by  Spain  in  the  nego- 
tiations which  led  to  the  commercial  agreement  of 
1884.  There  had  been  a  tariff  war  between  the  two 
countries,  by  which  the  shipping  of  each  had  been  pro- 
tected by  discriminating  and  retaliator}^  duties.  Inas- 
much as  higher  imposts  were  levied  in  Cuban  ports 
upon  cargoes  under  the  American  flag,  merchandise  in 
Spanish  bottoms  was  subjected  in  American  ports  to 
an  ad  valorem  duty  of  ten  per  cent.  The  retaliatory 
duties  were  more  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  Spanish 
than  to  those  of  American  shipping,  for  the  reason 
that  the  volume  of  the  exports  from  Cuba  greatly  ex- 
ceeded that  of  the  imports  received  in  return  from  the 
United  States.  In  order  to  rescue  its  shipping  from 
these  ruinous  conditions,  Spain  succeeded  in  entrap- 
ping the  United  States  into  a  commercial  agreement  for 
the  equalization  of  the  flags  and  the  abolition  of  the 
discriminating  duties  on  each  side. 

In  order  to  obtain  admission  for  Cuban  sugar  into 
American  ports  under  the  Spanish  flag,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  offer  compensating  advantages  for  American 
shipping  in  Cuban  ports.  This  was  nominally  done  by 
the  removal  of  discriminating  flag  duties.  But  meas- 
ures were  taken  to  neutralize  this  advantage  by  provid- 


THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD  283 

ing  for  a  gradual  reduction  of  the  import  duties  on 
breadstuffs  and  manufactures  shipped  from  Spain.  The 
commercial  agreement  was  made  on  Februar}^  13,  1884, 
but  the  Spanish  tariff  act  of  July  20,  1882, 'had  reduced 
to  a  minimum  all  the  benefits  which  could  be  derived 
by  the  United  States  from  the  compact.  This  can 
readily  be  illustrated.  Before  the  agreement  was  made, 
flour  from  Spain  was  subject  in  Cuba  to  a  duty  of 
$2.25  per  225  pounds  when  shipped  under  the  Spanish 
flag.  American  flour  in  Spanish  bottoms  was  liable  to 
a  duty  of  |4.69.  On  American  flour  in  American  bot- 
toms a  duty  of  $5. 51  was  paid.  The  effect  of  the  agree- 
ment of  1884  was  to  remove  the  discrimination  between 
American  and  Spanish  bottoms  amounting  to  82  cents. 
American  flour  still  had  against  it  a  discrimination  of 
$2.44;  and,  under  the  tariff  law  of  1882,  this  broad 
margin  was  to  be  widened  every  year  by  the  reduction 
of  duties  on  Spanish  flour.  This  sliding  scale  of  reduc- 
tions extended  over  a  period  of  ten  years.  In  this  way 
the  margin  against  American  flour  was  increased  from 
$2.44  year  by  year  until  it  was  $5.62  per  barrel.  The 
same  methods  of  procedure  were  employed  for  the  pro- 
tection of  all  classes  of  merchandise  manufactured  or 
produced  in  Spain.  The  flags  were  equalized,  but  the 
gradual  reduction  of  duties  on  Spanish  imports  placed 
American  imports  in  Cuba  at  greater  disadvantage  than 
in  1882,  before  the  commercial  agreement  was  made. 

Spain  was  playing  a  double  game.  While  offering 
fictitious  advantages,  it  was  adopting  a  policy  by  which 
its  commercial  marine  could  be  saved  from  destruction 
and  developed  at  the  expense  of  the  only  great  maritime 
nation  that  was  systematically  neglecting  and  sacrific- 
ing its  shipping  interests.     Spain  by  its  economic  and 


284  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

commercial  policy  had  driven  every  flag  except  its  own 
and  the  American  from  Cuba.  With  discriminating 
duties  in  favor  of  Spanish  products,  no  other  European 
nation  could  profitably  compete  in  the  import  trade ;  and 
when  there  was  no  market  for  cane  sugar  on  the  conti- 
nent, there  were  no  cargoes  to  take  back.  Americans 
took  the  sugar  and  apparently  were  indifferent  to  the 
development  of  their  export  and  carrying  trades.  It 
was  easy  to  dupe  the  great  Yankee  nation  into  a  com- 
pact by  which  Spanish  ships  could  carry  sugar  into  New 
York  and  be  admitted  on  terms  of  equality  in  the  carry- 
ing trade,  while  American  merchandise  was  to  be  dis- 
criminated against  in  Cuba  more  and  more  heavily  by 
the  operation  of  the  reduced  tariff  on  imports  received 
from  the  Peninsula.  Spain  made  a  bargain  by  which 
its  shipping  interests  could  be  restored  without  loss  to 
its  agricultural  and  manufacturing  classes,  and  at  once 
increased  its  subsidies  and  bounties  to  its  merchant 
marine.  The  sugar-planters  derived  no  benefit  what- 
ever from  discriminations  against  the  exports  of  the 
only  market  where  they  could  sell  their  product. 
They  lost  heavily  by  a  tariff  system  which  protected 
Spain  at  the  expense  of  Cuba  and  compelled  them 
to  obtain  exchanges  in  the  dearest  market. 

While  the  American  tariff  bill  of  1890  was  under  dis- 
cussion, Spain  decreed  an  increase  of  twenty  per  cent  on 
imports  in  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  from  all  ports  except 
its  own.  This  was  done  defiantly  in  expectation  of 
increased  duties  on  tobacco.  It  was  the  first  response 
to  the  offer  of  a  free  market  for  sugar  in  the  United 
States.  It  was  not  until  the  reciprocity  amendment 
was  adopted  that  the  island's  future  was  directly 
affected.     That  brought  in  American  diplomacy  to  work 


THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD  285 

out  the  economic  emancipation  of  Cuba  from  Spain. 
Bitter  experience  had  taught  the  island  that  alone  and 
unaided  it  could  do  nothing.  The  disastrous  insurrec- 
tion would  never  have  broken  out,  if  Cubans  had  not 
counted  with  false  confidence  upon  American  interven- 
tion. It  ended  in  collapse,  because  the  United  States 
government,  recoiling  from  civil  war,  would  do  nothing 
for  the  insurgents.  The  economic  revolution  by  which 
the  island's  industrial  fortunes  might  be  restored  could 
be  brought  about  only  with  the  cooperation  of  the 
United  States.  Havana  was  feeble,  but  Washington 
was  powerful.  The  reciprocity  amendment  was  the 
fulcrum  for  a  long  lever.  Let  sufficient  force  be  applied 
by  the  Great  Republic,  and  the  w^orld  of  Spanish  diplo- 
macy might  be  moved. 

The  lever  was  long  enough  and  there  was  adequate 
force  in  Washington.  The  reciprocit}'  schedules  were 
negotiated.  Spain  reluctantly  consented  to  relax  its 
economic  system  and  to  recognize  the  commercial  de- 
pendency of  the  islands  upon  the  United  States.  The 
Madrid  government  may  not  have  been  influenced  by 
apprehension  of  political  disturbances,  but  it  must  at 
least  have  dreaded  an  access  of  annexation  feeling.  In 
the  Cuban  revolt  it  had  a  powerful  body  of  Spanish 
supporters  with  conservative  instincts.  The  native 
landowners  who  were  in  sympathy  with  the  insurrec- 
tion lost  everything  in  the  struggle.  Their  estates 
were  confiscated  and  sold  to  Spaniards  and  foreigners. 
It  is  this  new  class  of  property-owners,  reinforced  by  the 
old  contingent  of  Spanish  conservatives,  that  has  been 
most  -directly  interested  in  securing  reciprocity.  It  is 
the  ruling  class,  controlling  what  capital  there  is  in  the 
island,  and  its  interests  require  unrestricted  trade  with 


286  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

the  only  market  where  its  produce  can  be  sold.  If  reci- 
procity had  been  refused,  a  great  impulse  would  inevi- 
tably have  been  imparted  to  the  annexation  movement; 
and  if  serious  disturbances  had  arisen,  the  home  govern- 
ment would  have  lacked  the  support  of  the  most  influ- 
ential classes.  The  risks  were  not  taken.  By  granting 
the  demand  for  reciprocity,  the  Madrid  government 
adopted  the  most  practical  and  the  safest  method  of 
counteracting  annexation  agitation  and  of  strengthen- 
insf  the  alleo-iance  of  the  colonies  to  the  Crown.  The 
Northern  Republic  had  been  like  a  giant  sleeping  while 
the  little  men  of  Spanish  Liliput  had  enmeshed  him 
with  the  silken  bonds  of  diplomacy.  He  suddenly 
awakened  and  had  resources  of  power  at  his  command 
which  were  irresistible. 

It  was  my  fortune  to  be  in  Cuba  while  the  commis- 
sion was  in  Madrid  and  to  converse  freely  with  the 
planters  and  merchants  a  few  weeks  before  the  reci- 
procity treaty  was  negotiated.  I  was  astonished  by  the 
frankness  with  which  a  revolution  was  predicted  as  the 
result  of  a  possible  failure  of  the  reciprocity  negotia- 
tions. A  summary  of  the  opinion  of  the  land  proprie- 
tors and  industrial  classes  would  have  taken  this  form: 
Cuba  had  been  paralyzed  and  ruined  by  a  system  of 
unreciprocal  protection  adopted  for  the  selfish  interests 
of  Spain ;  the  island  must  have  the  benefits  of  commer- 
cial union  with  the  United  States,  the  only  market  for 
its  sugar;  if  the  mother  country  persisted  in  refusing 
to  negotiate  an  equitable  reciprocity  convention  with 
the  State  Department,  there  would  be  intense  excite- 
ment, bitter  resentment,  and  a  prospect  of  the  outbreak 
of  revolution ;  and  while  compliance  with  the  reasona- 
ble demands  of  the  United  States  would  stimulate  a 


THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD  287 

feeling  of  loyalty  to  Spain,  Cuba  belonged  naturally  in 
the  orbit  of  the  Northern  Republic  and  sooner  or  later 
would  be  drawn  into  its  place  by  the  law  of  economic 
gravitation.  There  was  no  division  of  opinion  in  the 
island  respecting  either  the  advantages  of  or  the  neces- 
sity for  commercial  union. 

The  only  planter  who  spoke  to  me  in  terms  of  dis- 
paragement of  reciprocity  was  a  rabid  annexationist  who 
apprehended  that  the  success  of  the  policy  would  post- 
pone for  an  indefinite  period  political  union.  He  had 
no  faith  in  it.  Anything  short  of  annexation  would  be 
futile.  The  sugar-planters  were  at  the  end  of  their 
resources.  They  could  not  sell  their  estates,  nor  carry 
on  business  profitably,  nor  obtain  trustworthy  mechanics 
and  skilled  labor  for  so  delicate  and  scientific  an  indus- 
try as  sugar-making.  The  country  was  utterly  ex- 
hausted. What  was  needed  was  American  trade, 
capital,  and  labor;  and  these  could  only  come  after 
annexation.  Cuba  belonged  in  the  Union.  Nature 
intended  it  to  be  there.  Economic  law  was  carrying 
it  in  that  direction.  A  financial  collapse  would  accel- 
erate the  movement.  No,  reciprocity  was  not  a  remedy. 
Annexation  must  come.  So  this  worthy  man  ran  on 
for  an  hour  or  more.  He  was  the  only  planter,  or  mer- 
chant, who  dissented  from  the  general  opinion  that 
commercial  union  was  the  only  policy  open  to  the 
island.  As  an  uncompromising  annexationist,  he  was 
repelled  rather  than  attracted  by  the  policy  of  reci- 
procity. 

The  Madrid  government  was  reported  at  that  time 
to  be  considering  the  expediency  of  imposing  a  direct 
export  duty  on  sugar  as  soon  as  the  American  revenue 
duties  were  abolished  in  April,    1891.       That  would 


288  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

have  been  a  direct  challenge  to  the  United  States.  If 
it  were  followed  by  the  enforcement  of  the  reciprocity 
amendment  at  Washington  and  the  restoration  of  the 
sugar  duties  against  Cuba,  it  was  conceded  by  all 
planters  whom  I  met  that  1892  would  be  a  critical  year. 
A  political  i-evolution  was  generally  predicted  as  the 
direct  consequence  of  the  failure  of  negotiations  with 
the  United  States.  Not  once  but  many  times  was  the 
assertion  made  by  men  of  influence  that  the  Madrid 
government  seemed  bent  upon  precipitating  a  second 
insurrection  by  rejecting  the  overtures  for  commercial 
union.  At  the  same  time  there  were  others,  perhaps 
equally  well  informed,  who  were  confident  that  the 
horrors  and  sufferings  of  the  civil  war,  recalled  with 
shuddering  fear  and  anguish  of  mind,  would  prevent 
the  recurrence  of  a  political  outbreak  and  induce  public 
apathy.  Every  one  was  ready  to  concede  that  commer- 
cial union  would  greatly  diminish  the  cost  of  living 
and  the  burdens  imposed  upon  industry,  and  strengthen 
the  bonds  uniting  the  colonies  with  the  mother  State. 

In  every  quarter  I  received  testimony  to  the  quiet, 
orderly,  and  peaceable  character  of  the  working  popula- 
tion. The  negroes  were  docile,  easily  controlled,  and 
well  disposed.  During  the  insurrection  the  slaves  were 
loyal  to  their  masters.  When  the  war  ended,  emanci- 
pation came  as  a  reward  for  their  good  conduct.  No 
feeling  of  race  antipathy  was  excited.  Whites  and 
blacks  adapted  themselves  at  once  to  the  new  condi- 
tions. They  may  be  seen  to-day  working  side  by  side 
in  the  field  or  taking  coffee  together  at  a  restaurant. 
The  Spanish,  being  a  Latin  breed,  have  little  of  that 
strong  feeling  of  affinity  for  their  own  blood,  and  of 
antipathy  to  a  race  of  another  color,  that  is  characteris- 


THE   LAST   SPANISH   STRONGHOLD  289 

tic  of  the  Anglo-Saxon.  There  was  neither  jealousy 
nor  persecution  of  the  freedmen,  as  in  the  United  States 
after  the  war.  There  was  no  corresponding  feeling  of 
resentment  against  the  whites. 

These  facts  are  significant,  because  the  strongest 
argument  against  the  annexation  of  Cuba  before  the 
Civil  War  in  the  United  States  was  grounded  upon  the 
danger  of  increasing  the  area  of  slave  population,  and 
because  also  the  inaction  of  the  American  government 
during  the  insurrection  in  the  island  was  justified  by 
the  plea  that  the  existence  of  turbulent  and  lawless 
classes  there  precluded  intervention  on  its  behalf. 
Emancipation  has  been  wrought  there  with  less  race 
friction  and  disturbance  than  in  the  United  States.  In 
no  other  quarter  of  Spanish  America  is  there  less  law- 
lessness than  in  Cuba.  The  strongest  argument  against 
the  purchase  or  annexation  of  the  island  is  the  lack  of 
congeniality  and  sympathy  between  the  Latin  race  and 
the  American  Anglo-Saxons.  They  are  as  unlike  as  if 
they  had  been  born  and  bred  on  different  planets. 

The  Cuban  question  is  looming  up  in  the  future  of 
the  United  States  as  one  of  steadily  increasing  impor- 
tance. Commercial  union  has  satisfied,  at  least  tem- 
poraril}',  all  industrial  classes  and  restored  in  some 
degree  the  prestige  of  Spain  in  the  island.  It  has 
promoted  investments  of  American  capital  and  the 
development  of  the  sugar  industry  on  a  large  scale. 
With  improved  machinery  and  scientific  processes  it  is 
not  improbable  that  the  production  of  sugar  in  Cuba 
will  be  doubled  in  a  decade.  The  reductions  of  duties 
on  American  flour,  provisions,  manufactures,  lumber, 
and  coal  will  largely  benefit  consumers  and  industrial 
interests.     If  commercial  union  be  followed  by  a  revival 


290  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

of  business  activity,  as  now  seems  probable,  there  will 
be  no  disturbance  of  the  relations  of  political  depend- 
ence upon  the  mother  country,  for  Cuba  with  a  restora- 
tion of  its  prosperity  will  be  more  loyal  than  ever  before. 
If  the  reciprocity  agreement  fails  to  release  the  planters 
from  their  financial  embarrassments,  the  force  of  eco- 
nomic gravitation  toward  the  United  States  will-  become 
irresistible,  and  annexation  will  be  the  last  resource  of 
the  island.  Americans  to-day  are  confident  that  they 
do  not  want  Cuba  on  any  terms.  They  are  probably 
right,  for  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  Latin  civilizations  do 
not  accord  with  each  other.  But  if  in  time  the  people 
of  the  island  are  found  to  be  clamoring  for  admission 
into  the  Union,  it  may  be  very  difficult  to  keep  them 
out.  Cuba  is  a  storehouse  of  mineral  and  agricultural 
wealth.  It  was  designed  by  nature  to  be  the  most  pro- 
ductive garden  of  the  tropics.  The  early  Spanish  nav- 
igators rightly  named  it  the  Pearl  of  the  Antilles.  It 
is  a  pearl  clouded  with  industrial  misfortunes.  Under 
American  administration  it  would  be  cleaned,  reset, 
and  polished,  so  as  to  shine  with  more  than  its  old-time 
lustre. 


XV 

A   CIRCUIT   OF  MEXICAN   TOWNS 

RUINED    RACES    AND    PROSPEROUS    INDUSTRIES    OF    YUCATAN 
—  NEW    HARBOR    WORKS     AT     TAMPICO  —  VERA     CRUZ    IN 

WHITE     CEREMENTS  OLD-TIME      SCENES     IN     ORIZABA 

PUEBLA  AND  CHOLULA  —  THE  MOST  PROSAIC  CAPITAL  OF 
SPANISH  AMERICA  —  TOLUCA  AND  MORELIA  —  LAKE  PATZ- 
CUARO  AND  TZINTZUNTZAN  —  AN  INDIAN  ART-IDOL  IN 
A  RUINED  CHURCH  —  CONTRAST  BETWEEN  AGUAS  CALI- 
ENTES  AND  SAN  LUIS  POTOSI  —  MONTEREY  IN  A  TRAN- 
SITION   STAGE 

The  traveller  who  follows  in  the  track  of  Cortes  and 
the  Conquistadores  from  Cuba  catches  his  first  glimpse 
of  Mexico  on  the  second  morning  after  leaving  Havana. 
The  yellow  sand  dunes  of  Progreso  passed  under  the 
eyes  of  the  boldest  and  least  scrupulous  adventurer  of 
the  era  of  the  conquest  as  he  was  sailing  along  the 
coast  of  Yucatan  toward  the  Tabasco  River.  It  is  the 
same  sunny  but  treacherous  shore  which  is  seen  five 
miles  away  as  the  ship  lies  at  anchor,  rolling  from  side 
to  side  with  the  ground-swell.  If  the  winds  still  blow 
and  the  sand-bars  are  shifting  with  every  ebb  of  the 
tide,  as  they  were  four  hundred  years  ago,  so,  too,  there 
is  little  change  in  the  lower  currents  of  human  exist- 
ence in  Yucatan.  The  dark-skinned,  coarse-haired,  som- 
nolent Mayas  were  there  when  Cortes  sailed  the  seas, 
and  they  are  still  to  be  seen  lazily  tilling  the  fields  and 

291 


292  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

sunning  themselves  in  the  market-places.  Four  cen- 
turies ago  their  great  cities  were  already  in  ruins, 
and  their  massive  causeways  and  temples  were  over- 
grown with  tropical  verdure.  They  had  been  a  superior 
race,  with  a  genius  for  architecture,  mechanical  art,  and 
engineering  such  as  the  overrated  Aztecs  never  pos- 
sessed ;  but  they  were  in  an  advanced  stage  of  intellect- 
ual decadence  when  the  Conquistadores  passed  along 
the  coast.  They  still  form  the  mass  of  the  population 
of  the  peninsula,  and  when  one  glances  at  their  stolid 
faces  he  finds  it  hard  to  believe  that  there  has  been  any 
material  change  in  their  social  state  or  mental  develop- 
ment. The  workmen  in  the  sisal  fields,  the  hammock- 
makers  in  their  huts,  and  the  market-women  dozing  in 
their  stalls  live  very  much  as  their  swarthy  ancestors 
lived  generations  ago.  Fruit,  maize  paste,  beans,  and 
green  peppers  form  their  diet.  If  a  laborer  can  make 
thirty  cents  a  day  he  is  content.  He  is  always  in  debt 
to  his  employer,  and  is  never  to  be  counted  upon  for 
serious  occupation  twenty-four  hours  after  a  feast-day. 
This  is  the  character  of  the  working  population  of 
Yucatan  according  to  the  testimony  of  experienced 
observers.  Generations  of  Mayas  have  lived  and  died 
since  the  palaces  of  Palenque  and  the  temples  of  Chi- 
chen  were  overthrown,  but  there  has  been  no  revival  of 
the  primitive  prestige  of  a  wonderful  race. 

One  must  be  just,  however,  in  his  estimate  of  Span- 
ish-American civilization.  If  there  are  in  Yucatan  and 
in  adjacent  States  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  descend- 
ants of  Mexican  races,  whose  genius  is  attested  by  the 
elaborate  stone  structures  unearthed  during  the  recent 
years  by  archceologists,  it  is  because  the  conquest,  with 
all  its  tyranny  and  merciless  greed,  left  the  natives  in 


A  CIRCUIT   OF  MEXICAN  TOWNS  293 

possession  of  the  coasts,  fields,  and  forests.  An  Anglo- 
Saxon  invasion  would  have  swept  them  into  the  Pacific. 
The  Indian  tribes  which  witnessed  the  settlement  of 
Jamestown,  Manahatta,  and  Plymouth  Rock  have  per- 
ished from  the  face  of  the  earth.  The  Indians  whom 
Cortes  found  in  Yucatan  and  Mexico  are  still  there,  and 
it  is  their  labor,  unskilled  and  uncertain  though  it  be, 
that  makes  the  resources  of  the  country  available  for  the 
requirements  of  trade.  If  4,000,000  out  of  12,000,000, 
the  estimated  population  of  the  country,  are  of  pure 
Indian  stock,  the  great  mass  of  what  remains,  at  least 
6,000,000,  is  of  mixed  blood  ;  and  the  upper  strata  of 
it  have  received  the  impress  of  Spanish  civilization.  It 
may  not  have  imparted  a  progressive  impulse  to  the 
Indian  population,  but  it  has  not  been  a  barren  policy 
of  extermination.  The  unmixed  races  remain,  in  their 
fallen  estate,  the  most  interesting  ruins  to  be  found  in 
a  land  of  ruins,  but  they  have  at  least  been  left  in  -pos- 
session of  their  mountains  and  forests.  To  these  are 
added  races  of  mixed  blood,  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the 
population,  upon  which  all  hope  for  the  future  of  Mexico 
must  be  grounded.  Because  the  Spaniard  does  not  have 
the  same  race  affinities  and  antipathies  which  influence 
the  Anglo-Saxon,  there  is  a  hybrid  population  that  is 
capable  of  making  social  and  political  progress. 

Yucatan  offers  strong  and  almost  startling  contrasts 
between  what  is  old  and  what  is  new  in  Mexican  civili- 
zation. The  memorials  of  its  ancient  architecture  and 
industries  are  embedded  in  its  forests,  and  the  strain  of 
the  oldest  native  blood  runs  in  the  population ;  but  in 
its  commercial  activity  and  the  development  of  its  agri- 
cultural resources  it  is  essentially  modern.  Progreso  is 
practically  the  only  port,  and  it  is  the  terminus  of  a 


294  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

well-managed  system  of  American  railways,  by  which  a 
crop  of  henequen  fibre,  valued  in  1890  at  over  $5,000,000, 
is  carried  to  the  American  market.  On  its  long  wharf 
are  landed  all  the  imports  received  in  the  State,  and  it 
is  the  shipping-point  for  raw  fibre,  the  main  product  of 
the  country.  The  railway  runs  for  many  miles  through 
sisal  plantations.  All  the  way  from  Progreso  to  Mdrida 
acres  of  fibre-producing  cactus  are  seen.  Yucatan  is 
one  of  the  most  productive  and  prosperous  Mexican 
States.  If  the  working  population  remains  in  a  low 
state  of  impoverishment  and  ignorance,  the  henequen 
or  sisal  farmers  have  what  Sir  Ambrose  Shea  is  seeking 
to  provide  for  the  Bahamas,  an  industry  preeminently 
adapted  to  the  soil  and  climate.  A  great  industry  has 
been  established,  and  Progreso  has  become  one  of  the 
largest  shipping-points  in  Mexico,  rivalling  Vera  Cruz. 
Mdrida,  while  founded  as  long  ago  as  1542,  is  not  a  for- 
lorn and  crumbling  town.  The  cathedral  with  its 
double  towers  fronting  upon  the  plaza  shows  signs  of 
age,  but  the  houses  are  freshly  painted,  and  offer  a 
marked  contrast  to  the  dilapidated  architecture  of  Cuban 
towns.  The  government  buildings  opposite  the  cathe- 
dral have  double  portales,  graceful  architectural  lines, 
and  an  unmistakable  Moorish  effect.  M^rida  has  a 
population  of  50,000  and  is  a  rich  town.  The  henequen 
farmers  live  there  in  great  comfort  and  spend  money 
freely.  At  the  carnival  balls  there  is  a  lavish  display 
of  diamonds  and  Parisian  costumes,  and  the  planters 
and  merchants  often  go  abroad  with  their  families  to 
see  the  world. 

From  Progreso  the  steamer  Yucatan  crossed  the  Gulf 
and  anchored  for  three  days  off  Tampico,  where  fresh 
evidences  of  the  progressive  tendencies  of  Mexico  were 


A   CIRCUIT   OF   MEXICAN    TOWNS  295 

furnished  in  the  harbor  works.  This  town  with  a  popu- 
lation of  only  5000  aspires  to  be  a  commercial  rival  of 
Vera  Cruz  and  Progreso.  American  enterprise  and 
engineering  skill  have  converted  the  worst  into  the  best 
harbor  on  the  coast.  A  sand-bar  shifting  with  the 
breath  of  every  norther  has  blocked  the  entrance  to  a 
broad  and  deep  river  with  a  channel  adequate  for  the 
requirements  of  shipping  of  heavy  draught.  Work  was 
begun  in  March,  1890,  on  a  system  of  jetties  similar  to 
those  constructed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  The 
capital  for  this  great  enterprise  is  American,  being  sup- 
plied by  the  Mexican  Central  Railway  Company,  which 
opened  direct  communication  with  Tampico  from  San 
Luis  Potosi  in  1890.  The  Monterey  and  Gulf  Railway 
will  connect  the  town  with  Laredo  and  Eagle  Pass,  and 
the  Interoceanic  in  time  will  approach  it  from  the 
south.  With  these  railway  facilities  and  with  a  deep- 
water  harbor  secured  through  the  construction  of  the 
jetties,  Tampico  will  inevitably  become  a  great  com- 
mercial centre. 

Vera  Cruz  is  making  a  belated  and  unscientific  effort 
to  improve  its  own  harbor.  A  breakwater  or  mole  is  to 
be  extended  to  the  reef  which  now  renders  the  entrance 
to  its  harbor  very  dangerous.  There  will  be  piers  built 
on  the  inner  side,  so  that  vessels  can  take  their  cargoes 
from  railway  cars.  The  plan  is  very  effective  on  paper, 
but  conservative  engineers  predict  that  it  will  be  a 
failure,  since  such  a  breakwater  will  not  prevent  the 
blocking  of  the  harbor  entrance  with  sand.  Of  the  two 
rival  engineering  schemes,  the  Tampico  jetty  system  is 
the  more  scientific  and  provides  a  practical  method  of 
scouring  out  the  harbor.  Vera  Cruz,  while  it  is  labor- 
ing over  its  clumsy  breakwater,  will  not  admit  that  its 


296  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

commercial  supremacy  is  menaced  by  so  insignificant  a 
rival  as  Tampico.  It  is  the  natural  gateway  to  the 
capital,  and,  moreover,  has  behind  it  the  rich  coffee^ 
districts  of  Cordova  and  Orizaba.  These  advantages 
are  very  great,  but  little  Tampico  is  surrounded  by 
mountain  slopes,  where  coffee  can  be  produced  as  readily 
as  ixtle  fibre  on  the  higher  plateau,  and  it  is  the  natural 
shipping-point  for  the  ores  and  metals  of  Central  and 
Northern  Mexico.  Vera  Cruz  cannot  afford  to  despise 
ambitious  Tampico.  The  export  trade  of  the  three  Gulf 
ports,  Progreso,  Tampico,  and  Vera  Cruz,  is  largely 
with  New  York  and  New  Orleans.  Coffee  and  raw 
fibre  are  the  chief  exports,  with  silver  ore,  dyewoods, 
hides,  rubber,  sarsaparilla,  and  fruit  in  small  quantities. 
Three-fourths  of  the  surplus  product  of  coffee  is  now 
sent  to  the  American  market  and  almost  all  the  crude 
fibre.  Two-thirds  of  the  commerce  of  Vera  Cruz  is 
with  the  United  States. 

An  ill-omened  city  of  the  dead.  Vera  Cruz  is  ap- 
proached with  a  sinking  of  the  heart,  and  even  pictu- 
resque beauty  is  without  power  to  restore  courage  and  to 
disarm  prejudice.  Under  the  intense  blue  of  a  tropical 
sky  the  disreputable  old  town,  with  its  blackened  domes, 
its  reeking  fever-nests  and  its  swarms  of  scavenger  birds, 
is  transfigured  by  rich  mists  of  sunlight  and  revealed 
in  spectral  loveliness.  Two  majestic  mountains,  tower- 
ing above  the  cloud-girt  Sierra  Madre  range,  bend  over 
it  like  guardian  spirits.  Grim  San  Juan  de  Uliia 
stands  at  the  entrance  of  the  harbor  like  a  cemetery 
lodge.  Landward  is  a  vista  of  crumbling  flat-roofed 
houses,  cluttered  like  gravestones,  with  here  and  there, 
like  monuments  upreared,  a  church  tower  with  china 
tiles,  or  a  Moorish  dome  with  time-stained  face.    Where 


A  CIRCUIT   OF   MEXICAN   TOWNS  297 

the  city  ends  in  reaches  of  sand,  palms  and  rank  cactus 
growths  stand  out  like  ornamental  shrubbery  on  the 
borders  of  a  cemetery.  Learned  travellers  stroke  their 
beards  and  assert  that  the  effect  of  the  architecture  is 
Egyptian.  What  they  see  is  a  Spanish  city  of  the  dead, 
with  glittering  crosses  and  monumental  belfries  point- 
ing heavenward,  and  with  weird  and  ghastly  effects  of 
light  and  shadow  such  as  are  rarely  known  on  sea  or 
land. 

The  two  giant  sentinels  of  the  coast,  the  Cofre  de 
Perote  and  Orizaba,  are  isolated  mountains  on  the  outer 
edge  of  the  broad  Mexican  table-land.  Jalapa  lies  at 
the  base  of  one  and  Cordova  and  Orizaba  within  a  day's 
mule-ride  of  the  other.  These  three  cities  are  ap- 
proached from  the  coast  through  orange  groves,  planta- 
tions of  coffee,  sugar,  and  tobacco,  and  broad  stretches 
of  tropical  forest.  The  foot  of  the  range  is  reached  by 
the  English  railway  from  Vera  Cruz  after  sterile  savan- 
nas and  swamp  lands  have  been  passed.  The  vegeta- 
tion increases  in  luxuriance  as  the  slopes  are  ascended; 
barrancas  a  thousand  feet  deep  flank  the  line  of  the 
railway,  and  mountain  torrents  and  cascades  flash 
before  the  eye  as  the  train  winds  around  ravines  and 
plunges  from  one  tunnel  into  another.  Almost  from 
the  base  of  the  range  the  symmetrical  peak  of  Orizaba 
with  its  snowy  summit  is  seen,  and  every  mile  of  the 
journey  inland  its  proportions  are  enlarged  and  its 
splendors  increased.  A  railway  which  makes  less  than 
thjiee  miles  in  a  direct  line  while  passing  over  twenty 
miles  of  zigzag  and  spiral  curve  cannot  be  anything  but 
intensely  interesting  to  sight-seers.  The  scenery  by 
the  Interoceanic,  the  new  coast  line  to  the  capital,  is 
described  as  equally  fine,  although  the  grades  are  easier 


298  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

and  the  methods  of  construction  much  more  economical. 
About  t|30,000,000  went  into  the  English  railway,  owing 
to  defective  surveys  for  the  enterprise.  The  original 
blunders  have  involved  high  operating  expenses,  which 
place  it  at  a  serious  disadvantage  in  meeting  competi- 
tion. 

What  Orizaba  was  in  Maximilian's  time  it  remains  to 
this  day  —  a  characteristic  bit  of  old  Mexico.  With 
the  railway  station  a  mile  away  and  with  three  lines  of 
street  cars  restricted  to  short  routes,  it  has  not  been 
despoiled  of  its  picturesque  quaintness  by  modern  inno- 
vation. Railways  and  electric  lights  have  come,  but  the 
antique  simplicity  of  primitive  customs  remains.  The 
market  scenes  might  have  been  sketched  by  Bernal 
Diaz,  the  companion  of  Cortes,  nearly  four  hundred 
years  ago.  The  dark-skinned  women  at  the  fountains, 
filling  their  water  jars ;  the  long,  straggling  lines  of  don- 
keys in  the  roadways  ;  the  groups  of  peasants  in  tattered 
raiment  with  soles  of  leather  bandaged  to  their  feet,  and 
grandiose  hats  on  their  heads,  resplendent  with  silver 
cord  and  tinsel  ornaments ;  caballeros  with  silver  stirrups 
and  gorgeous  saddles,  and  beggars  by  the  wayside  with 
black-eyed  babies  carried  in  deep  pockets  on  their  backs, 
are  figures  belonging  to  old  Mexico  which  are  disappear- 
ing from  the  central  plateau  and  the  northern  border. 
In  Orizaba  they  are  in  accord  with  the  scenic  surround- 
ings. The  cowering  beggar  lying  in  a  heap  and  mum- 
bling for  alms  is  in  the  right  place  under  the  crumbling 
church  tower.  Tlie  meek  burro  is  at  home  in  the 
crooked  lanes  and  deep  defiles.  The  swarthy  Indian 
faces,  with  black  plaited  hair  and  gleaming  teeth,  are 
appropriately  framed  by  the  rough  casements  in  the 
adobe  walls  of  the  low-browed  houses. 


A  CIRCUIT   OF   MEXICAN   TOWNS  299 

For  variety  of  landscape  effect  and  antique  architect- 
ure, Orizaba  is  unrivalled  in  a  picturesque  realm.  It 
lies  in  a  verdant  valley  engirdled  with  bold  hills  which 
would  rise  to  the  dignity  of  mountains,  if  Orizaba  were 
not  close  at  hand  with  the  tip  of  its  white  cone  nearly 
18,000  feet  above  the  sea,  surpassed  in  height  by  Popo- 
catepetl beyond  the  plain  of  Puebla,  but  unique  in  its 
symmetry  of  form  and  majestic  in  its  isolation.  There 
are  three  rocky  ravines  with  brooks  of  sufficient  volume 
to  turn  the  water-wheels  of  old-time  factories.  There 
is  an  alameda  with  noble  trees  and  a  bright  little  z6calo 
with  a  cluster  of  antique  stone  churches  around  it. 
Fountains  are  playing  under  orange  trees,  and  stone 
benches  are  shadowed  by  the  gorgeous  tulipan.  Every 
bridge  spanning  the  foaming  rivulets  is  an  artistic 
study.  Every  angle  of  the  crumbling  military  wall  and 
every  water-wheel  among  the  rocks  is  an  inviting  target 
for  the  tourist's  camera.  The  streets,  winding  in  and 
out  among  the  churches  to  the  borders  of  the  town,  end 
in  plantation  roads  with  neatly  trimmed  hedges,  white- 
washed cabins,  and  cultivated  fields  of  coffee,  sugar,  and 
tobacco.  The  coffee  shrubs  are  shaded  with  rows  of 
bananas,  but  the  sugar  and  tobacco  have  full  exposure 
to  the  sun.  The  town  is  bordered  on  all  sides  with 
tropical  verdure. 

While  Orizaba  is  a  remnant  of  old  Mexico,  it  reveals 
the  promise  of  the  potency  of  progress.  The  antique 
churches  contain  paintings  of  real  merit  by  native  artists. 
American  tourists  are  accustomed  to  saunter  care- 
lessly through  Mexican  churches  and  to  glance  con- 
temptuously at  the  altar-pieces  and  sacristy  panels  as 
crude  and  ignorant  work.  There  is  much  bad  painting 
of  the  religious  order,  but  the  collection  in  the  Gallery 


300  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

of  Fine  Arts  in  Mexico  contains  not  a  few  pictures  of 
original  force  and  fine  coloring.  Orizaba  has  had  a 
native  artist  named  Gabriel  Barranco,  who  has  enriched 
the  churches  with  works  of  noble  purpose,  if  of  unequal 
execution.  His  Holy  Family  in  the  rambling  church  of 
San  Jos^  de  Gracia  is  an  attempt  to  Mexicanize  Naza- 
reth ;  for  the  rug  on  the  floor,  the  pottery  on  the  shelf, 
and  the  tools  on  the  carpenter's  bench  are  all  native 
wares.  The  expedient  of  nationalizing  their  work  was 
adopted  by  all  patriotic  painters  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
This  industrious  Mexican,  laboring  in  a  remote  moun- 
tain town,  has  felt  the  impulse  of  by-gone  religious  in- 
spiration and  has  given  characteristic  expression  to  the 
devotional  life  of  his  country.  In  like  manner  Felix 
Parra,  in  his  noble  painting  of  Las  Casas  in  the 
National  Gallery  of  Mexico,  has  shown  that  Mexican 
art  has  a  present  of  positive  achievement  rather  than  a 
future  of  doubtful  promise. 

Whoever  founded  Puebla  had  the  instinct  of  a  mod- 
ern sanitary  engineer.  The  city  stands  on  the  easy 
slope  of  a  hillside,  and,  unlike  other  Mexican  towns  of 
the  first  rank,  is  thoroughly  drained.  While  the  death- 
rate  of  th^  national  capital  is  raised  by  drainage  con- 
ducted under  impossible  conditions,  the  lakes  being 
higher  than  the  city,  Puebla  has  all  the  advantages  of  a 
healthful  site.  It  is  one  of  the  cleanest  of  cities.  There 
are  gangs  of  prisoners  constantly  employed  in  the  road- 
ways, and  police  inspection  is  most  thorough.  The 
visitor  who  drives  out  to  the  fortifications  on  the  crests 
of  Guadalupe  and  Loreto  obtains  an  inspiring  view  of 
the  city,  with  its  undulating  levels,  its  yellow,  blue, 
pink,  and  white  domes,  its  avenues  of  fir  trees  in  the  old 
Paseo,  the  brown,  gray,  and  red  fa9ades  of  the  churches, 


A   CIRCUIT   OF   MEXICAN   TOWNS  301 

the  fine  lines  of  the  tower  of  San  Francisco,  and  the 
magnificent  cathedral  pile.  Puebla,  however,  is  not 
only  a  handsome  town  when  seen  from  a  distance  under 
favorable  conditions  of  light,  but  also  when  closely  in- 
spected in  detail.  It  is  largely  built  of  granite,  and  has 
many  massive  structures  on  its  broad  thoroughfares.  It 
is  a  city  of  churches,  hospitals,  charitable  institutions, 
colleges,  and  theatres.  Glazed  tiles  are  used  not  only  in 
the  chuich  domes,  to  produce  the  effect  of  mosaics  in  the 
strong  sunlight,  but  also  in  the  business  blocks  and  pub- 
lic hospitals,  to  break  the  cold  uniformity  of  stone  fa9ades. 
Wrought-iron  work  is  also  employed  for  ornamental 
effects,  and  there  are  signs  of  originality  in  the  street 
architecture.  The  central  square  is  one  of  the  hand- 
somest in  Mexico,  and  every  afternoon  and  evening  it 
is  filled  with  promenaders  while  the  band  is  playing. 
They  listen  with  rapturous  delight  and  intelligent  ap- 
preciation. They  have  a  strong  preference  for  music  by 
Mexican  composers,  which  expresses  their  own  joy  in 
life,  their  excitable  temperament,  and  volatile  spirits. 
There  is  no  other  country  in  Spanish  America  where  a 
distinct  school  of  native  composers  has  been  created. 
The  military  bands  in  Brazil,  the  Argentine,  and  Chili 
play  selections  from  French  operas  and  Strauss's 
waltzes.  In  Mexico  the  largest  proportion  of  the  music 
is  of  native  composition,  consisting  of  military  marches 
and  waltzes  of  original  movement  and  refinement  of 
feeling.  Some  of  the  bands  are  exceedingly  good,  not- 
ably those  of  Puebla,  Morelia,  and  Monterey. 

The  cathedral  of  Puebla  is  undoubtedly  the  finest 
church  in  Spanish  America.  The  cathedral  in  Mexico 
is  larger,  but  the  proportions  are  less  symmetrical  and 
the  lines  are  inferior  to  those  of  this  majestic  pile ;  and 


302  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

as  an  interior  it  is  not  to  be  compared  with  the 
Puebla  cathedral  in  richness  of  workmanship  and  sim- 
plicity of  treatment.  Two  high  towers  surmount  an 
impressive  fa9ade  of  stone,  with  basso-relievos  in  white 
marble.  Built  upon  a  stone  terrace,  it  is  of  massive 
construction  over  300  feet  long  and  100  wide,  with 
a  nave  eighty  feet  high,  crowned  with  a  spacious 
dome.  Other  Spanish  cathedrals  are  marred  with  mere- 
tricious ornamentation  and  tawdry  decorations.  Here 
every  interior  effect  is  rich  and  shapely.  The  pavement, 
instead  of  being  floored  as  in  the  cathedral  of  Mexico, 
is  of  colored  marbles.  The  entrance  doors  are  mag- 
nificent samples  of  wood  carving.  The  high  altar  is 
the  costliest  and  incomparably  the  finest  in  Tropical 
America,  being  fashioned  of  onyx  and  many  other  Mexi- 
can marbles,  and  ornamented  with  bronzes  and  inlaid 
pictures. 

The  transition  from  the  noble  cathedral  to  the 
pyramid  mound  of  Cholula  is  a  natural  one,  for  it  places 
the  most  finished  product  of  Spanish-American  civiliza- 
tion in  comparison  with  one  of  the  mighty  works  of  the 
mysterious  races  who  preceded  the  overrated  Aztecs  of 
the  time  of  Cortes.  It  is  approached  by  tram-car  across 
the  Atoyac  Valley,  a  long  ride  of  six  or  eight  miles ;  or 
it  can  be  reached  by  the  Interoceanic  Railway,  Avhich 
has  a  station  at  its  base.  The  grass-grown  pyramid 
mound  is  in  the  centre  of  a  straggling  Indian  town, 
containing  a  plaza  and  as  many  as  twenty  old  churches, 
some  of  which  have  been  closed  and  practically  aban- 
doned. What  may  have  been,  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish 
Conquest,  a  pyramid  with  a  truncated  top,  is  now  a  steep 
terraced  hill,  with  a  road  leading  to  the  summit,  which 
is  crowned  with  a  little  chapel.      The   aspect  of  this 


A  CIRCUIT   OF   MEXICAN  TOWNS  303 

ancient  mound  has  been  so  completely  transformed  by- 
Spanish  embellishment  and  road-making,  and  by  decades 
of  vegetation,  that  it  is  now  impossible  to  determine 
what  were  its  original  proportions.  That  it  was  of  arti- 
ficial construction  is  evident  from  the  fresh  cut  made 
at  its  base  for  the  railway  bed,  adobe,  brick,  and  frag- 
ments of  limestone  being  plainly  seen.  If  the  mound- 
builders  came  from  the  North,  they  improved  their  oppor- 
tunity for  education  during  their  southern  residence,  for 
their  architectural  work  in  Mexico  is  vastly  superior  to 
the  crude  hummocks  found  in  the  Mississippi  Valley 
and  in  the  southwestern  States.  If  they  came  from  Cen- 
tral America  and  the  Isthmus,  they  brought  with  them 
arts  which  flourished  at  a  very  early  date  in  Peru. 

An  American  traveller  entering  Mexico  with  the  pre- 
conception that  he  is  visiting  a  country  without  apti- 
tude for  making  industrial  progress  only  needs  to  visit 
the  manufacturing  cities  of  the  table-land,  Puebla  and 
Leon,  in  order  to  have  an  increased  feeling  of  respect 
for  the  people.  Not  only  have  agricultural  industries 
of  great  importance  been  established,  but  nearly  every- 
thing which  the  native  population  requires  for  clothing 
and  every-day  life  is  made  on  Mexican  soil.  The  cot- 
ton mantas  and  shawls  worn  by  the  women,  and  the 
woollen  blankets  in  which  the  men  enwrap  themselves, 
are  of  domestic  manufacture.  A  coarse,  unbleached 
cotton  cloth,  which  is  the  only  material  used  for  cloth- 
ing by  two-thirds  of  the  population,  is  produced  by  as 
many  as  one  hundred  mills.  Twenty-two  of  these  cot- 
ton factories  are  in  Puebla.  There  are  also  five  woollen 
mills  in  the  city,  and  factories  for  producing  leather 
goods,  hats  of  felt  and  straw,  potteries,  glassware, 
paper,  matches,  soap,  and  many  other  articles  in  com- 


304  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

mon  use.  Puebla  is  also  the  centre  of  the  onyx  quar- 
ries, and  tiles  of  various  patterns  are  manufactured  for 
building  purposes.  The  peon  and  his  wife  are  clad  in 
homespun  fabrics ;  the  manta,  zarape,  and  reboso  are  of 
Mexican  cotton  or  wool ;  the  sandals  on  their  feet  and 
the  gorgeous  sombreros  on  their  heads  are  of  domestic 
manufacture ;  they  eat  their  maize  cakes  and  beans 
from  native  pottery,  and  when  they  mount  their  mules 
to  go  to  market  they  are  in  saddles  of  local  production 
and  at  liberty  to  use  a  genuine  Mexican  spur.  Else- 
where in  Spanish  America  the  markets  are  bazaars  filled 
with  European  goods  of  the  cheapest  grades.  Mexico 
has  its  own  manual  arts  and  domestic  manufactures. 

The  national  capital  is  the  most  modern  and  prosaic 
city  in  Mexico.  It  lacks  the  strong  coloring  of  charac- 
teristic costumes  and  the  quaintness  of  old-time  simplic- 
ity. There  is  the  pulsating  activity  of  a  population  of 
325,000  to  be  felt  in  its  streets,  but  reminiscences  and 
memorials  of  the  storied  past  embalmed  by  the  genius 
of  Prescott  will  be  searched  for  laboriously,  if  not  in 
vain,  outside  the  National  Museum.  The  two  volcanoes, 
irreverently  called  by  Americans  "Popo"  and  "Woman 
in  White,"  instead  of  overhanging  the  historic  lakes,  are 
a  long  way  off,  and  are  seen  to  less  advantage  from  the 
entrance  to  Dolores  cemetery,  or  from  the  military 
school  at  Chapultepec,  than  from  the  plain  of  Puebla. 
The  suburbs  are  not  picturesque.  The  Viga  Canal  is  a 
trench  of  nauseating  stenches,  and  the  chinampas  or 
floating  gardens  are  a  flimsy  humbug.  The  lakes  are 
drainage  cesspools,  instead  of  being  crystal  sheets  of 
water  to  reflect  the  intense  blue  of  the  Mexican  sky. 
Chapultepec  is  a  beautiful  old  castle,  but  the  Paseo  de 
la  Refoima  leading  to  it  is  grand  only  in  design.     The 


A   CIRCUIT   OF   IVIEXICAN   TOWNS  305 

approaches  to  the  shrine  of  Guadalupe  with  the  stone 
stations  of  the  cross  have  been  ruined  by  the  railway 
tracks.  With  the  single  exception  of  the  cathedral, 
there  is  nothing  in  the  architecture  of  the  city  that  is 
impressive.  It  is  at  once  the  most  progressive  and  the 
most  commonplace  capital  in  Latin  America. 

What  Mexico  really  is  can  be  told  in  the  plainest 
prose.  It  ranks  after  Buenos  Ayres  and  Rio  de  Janeiro 
as  the  third  capital  of  Tropical  America.  It  is  well 
built,  paved,  and  flagged,  has  a  fine  water  supply,  is 
lighted  with  electricity  and  gas,  and  has  an  excellent 
police.  The  streets  are  cleaner  than  those  of  au}^  Amer- 
ican city.  The  pavements  in  such  streets  as  San  Fran- 
cisco, the  Plateros,  and  Cinco  de  Mayo,  are  as  smooth  as 
a  polished  ball-room  floor,  and  pleasure-grounds  like  the 
z6calo  in  front  of  the  cathedral  and  the  main  Alameda 
are  always  in  perfect  order  and  as  beautiful  as  Spanish 
landscape  gardening  can  make  them.  Mexico  has  a 
most  convenient  system  of  street  cars,  by  which  every 
suburb  can  be  directly  approached,  and  a  reformed 
method  of  numbering  the  avenues  from  a  central  point, 
by  which  order  will  finally  be  evolved  out  of  the  present 
confusing  conditions  of  street  nomenclature.  The  alti- 
tude of  the  city,  about  7,500  feet  above  sea  level,  is 
trying  to  all  who  are  not  acclimated  to  it ;  but  the  heat 
during  the  dry  season  is  seldom  oppressive,  and  the 
nights  are  invariably  cool.  During  the  rainy  season  the 
streets  are  often  flooded,  since  the  lakes,  Avith  one  excep- 
tion, are  higher  tlian  the  city,  and  the  drainage  problem 
has  continued  to  baffle  the  intellig^ence  of  the  enmneers. 
There  are  few  theatres  for  so  large  a  city,  and  the  hotels 
and  restaurants  are  utterly  abominable.  Mexico  is  in 
need  of  well-managed  hotels,  chop-houses,  and  steam 


306  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

laundries.  Until  these  wants  are  supplied,  it  will  re- 
main a  city  where  travellers  are  condemned  to  endure 
much  discomfort  and  annoyance.  My  fortnight's  stay 
in  the  city  was  fortunately  timed  so  as  to  include  the 
carnival  ball  at  the  Jockey  Club,  an  imposing  ecclesi- 
astical funeral,  and  an  impressive  military  parade.  I 
saw  Mexico  at  its  best  and  was  impressed  with  its  pro- 
gressive tendencies.  There  is  the  bustle  of  increasing 
business  in  its  streets ;  there  is  the  movement  of  intel- 
lectual forces  in  its  daily  life ;  and  there  is  an  air  of 
refinement  and  culture  among  its  wealthiest  classes. 

Among  the  sevent}^  churches  of  the  capital  there  is 
one  of  unrivalled  grandeur  and  another  of  superior 
sanctity  in  the  estimation  of  the  Mexicans.  The  cathe- 
dral is  over  400  feet  long,  200  feet  wide,  with  double 
towers  of  great  height.  With  its  majestic  proportions 
and  wealth  of  basso-relievos  and  statues,  this  could  not 
be  anything  but  an  imposing  structure ;  but  there  is  a 
lack  of  symmetry  in  the  exterior  design,  with  an  inhar- 
monious mingling  of  incongruous  architectural  lines  and 
types.  The  cathedral  at  Puebla  is  superior  to  it  both 
within  and  without.  I  can  say  this  with  a  feeling  of 
confidence,  because  I  have  seen  the  cathedral  of  Mexico 
under  the  best  possible  conditions,  when  it  was  crowded 
with  Avorshippers  from  the  massive  portals  to  the  high 
altar  at  the  funeral  of  Archbishop  Labastida,  and  when 
it  was  deprived  of  its  usual  bare  and  cold  aspect ;  but 
the  interior  is  deficient  in  richness  of  effect  and  warmth 
of  coloring,  and  must  be  adjudged  inferior  to  the  cathe- 
dral of  Puebla. 

The  cluster  of  churches  surrounding  the  miraculous 
spring  and  image  at  Guadalupe  possesses  few  architect- 
ural merits,  but  the  interiors  are  heavily  weighted  with 


A  CIRCUIT  OF   MEXICAN  TOWNS  307 

gold  and  silver,  and  represent  an  outlay  of  millions  of 
dollars.  This  is  the  Mexican  Mecca,  which  has  been 
visited  in  past  gener-ations  by  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
pilgrims,  who  have  knelt  at  the  twelve  stone  stations.  It 
still  retains  its  preeminence  as  the  favorite  sanctuary  of 
the  patron  saint  of  Mexico  —  Our  Lady  of  Guadalupe. 
Incongruous  is  the  dirty  town  of  Guadalupe,  with  its 
pulque-drinking  and  lazy  population  sunning  itself  in  the 
plaza  within  a  few  yards  of  the  scenes  of  all  these  appear- 
ances of  the  Mystic  Lady.  Familiarity  with  ground  con- 
secrated by  heavenly  visitations  seems  to  have  exerted  a 
demoralizing  effect  upon  the  inhabitants.  There  is  no 
meaner  town,  no  population  more  degraded,  than  is  to 
be  seen  here  on  holy  ground,  where  emperors  and  beg- 
gars alike  have  prostrated  themselves  before  the  sta- 
tions of  the  cross. 

If  the  traveller  be  enthusiastic  over  the  glories  of 
that  wonderful  Aztec  civilization  which  Cortes  is  re- 
puted to  have  found  in  the  Valley  of  Mexico,  two  or 
three  protracted  morning  hours  in  the  National  Museum 
will  be  needed  in  order  to  restore  his  impaired  faculties. 
A  thorough  study  of  that  remarkable  collection  of  an- 
tiquities may  convince  him  that  the  Aztecs  belonged  to 
the  stone  age,  possessed  only  a  crude  mechanical  art  and 
no  metallic  tools,  were  without  artistic  instinct,  and  had 
neither  a  written  language  nor  money  nor  manufactures. 
The  real  treasures  of  the  collection,  such  as  the  Calendar 
Stone,  the  Sacrificial  Stone,  and  the  idol  of  Huitzilo- 
pochtli,  probably  are  not  Aztec  relics  at  all,  but  the 
remnants  of  an  earlier  and  higher  civilization,  which 
had  been  overthrown  before  Cortes  landed  in  Mexico. 
It  is  in  the  National  Museum  that  the  visitor  sees  all 
that  can  honestly  be  seen  of  old  Mexico.     He  may  not 


308  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

be  able  to  identify  periods  and  races,  but  he  will  have 
at  least  a  vague  sense  of  sampling  all  the  generations  of 
primeval  Mexico,  and  of  condemning  such  art  as  they 
possessed  as  both  coarse  and  hideous,  and  as  offering  no 
indication  of  a  civilization  much  in  advance  of  that  of 
other  cannibal  savages.  The  National  Museum,  Art 
Gallery,  and  Library  are  three  well-conducted  institu- 
tions, which  are  thrown  open  to  the  public  without 
charge  for  admission.  These  are  the  chief  treasure- 
houses  of  Mexican  archaeology,  art,  and  literature,  and 
the  collections  are  of  inestimable  value  for  their  edu- 
cational influences.  The  Museum  has  created  rival 
schools  of  archaeology  in  Mexico.  The  Gallery,  with 
its  fine  picture  of  Las  Casas  and  other  strong  works,  has 
imparted  an  impulse  to  national  art.  The  immense 
library  has  only  been  partly  explored,  and  contains 
material  for  a  revised  history  of  the  country,  which  will 
settle  many  disputed  points.  These  three  magnificent 
collections  are  the  crowning  treasures  of  modern  Aztec 
Land. 

The  railway  from  the  national  capital  to  Toluca  leads 
over  the  mountains  and  commands  magnificent  pros- 
pects not  only  of  the  Valley  of  Mexico  and  the  snow- 
crowned  volcanoes,  but  also  of  another  majestic  peak  in 
the  West,  the  Nevado  de  Toluca.  Starting  at  a  level 
of  7400  feet  above  the  sea,  the  line  crosses  the  divide 
beyond  Salazar  at  an  altitude  of  10,635  feet  and 
descends  to  a  level  of  8600  feet  at  Toluca.  It  is  a 
railway  ride  of  only  forty -five  miles,  but  there  is  not  a 
dull  mile  among  them.  At  Dos  Rios,  a  fantastic 
swarm  of  Indian  huts,  there  is  a  long  bridge  spanning 
a  mountain  stream,  and  then  opens  a  succession  of 
barrancas,  or  gorges,  leading  up  to  the  summit  at  Sala- 


A   CIRCUIT   OF   MEXICAN   TOWNS  309 

zar.  Everything  in  this  wonderful  panorama  of  rugged 
highland  scenery  is  in  accord,  the  wild,  precipitous 
canons,  the  foaming  water-courses,  the  town  and  ser- 
rated edges  of  the  mountains,  the  bristling,  sword-spiked 
magueys,  the  adobe  huts,  and  the  gypsy  creatures  traf- 
ficking in  pulque  and  tortillas  as  the  train  halts  at  the 
stations  in  its  circuitous  and  laborious  passage.  When 
the  divide  is  crossed,  there  is  another  series  of  gorges, 
another  mountain  torrent  is  followed  in  its  windings 
from  the  summit,  and  the  magueys,  the  thatched  Indian 
cabins,  and  the  bundles  of  bright  costumes  are  in  keep- 
ing with  the  scenic  surroundings.  The  stately  Nevado 
de  Toluca,  rivalled  in  height  only  by  Popocatepetl, 
Orizaba,  and  Ixtaccihautl,  looms  up  from  the  valley  of 
Salazar  to  make  the  last  stage  of  the  journey  as  im- 
pressive as  the  first. 

Toluca  is  one  of  the  oldest  Mexican  cities,  having  been 
one  of  the  strongholds  of  the  Toltecs  before  the  ascen- 
dency of  the  Aztecs  was  established  in  the  great  valley 
by  the  lakes;  but  it  is  one  of  the  most  modern  in  its  gen- 
eral appearance.  It  is  the  capital  of  the  federal  State 
of  Mexico,  and  it  has  government  palaces,  buildings, 
and  churches  of  recent  construction  and  architectural 
pretensions.  It  has  a  college  of  excellent  reputation 
and  a  spacious,  well-conducted  market.  It  has  also  a 
special  brew  of  beer,  which  is  sold  everywhere  in  Mexico, 
and  has  added  not  a  little  to  its  contemporaneous  fame. 
Toluca  affects  a  jaunty,  youthful  air  and  does  not  care 
to  be  reminded  of  its  ancient  history.  Its  pride  is  cen- 
tred in  its  new  institutions  and  buildings,  and  in  the 
bustle,  energy,  and  industrial  activity  displayed  by  its 
people.  This  affectation  of  newness  does  not  enable  it 
to  dispense  with  two  of  the  old-time  abominations,  a 
miracle-working  image  and  a  bull-ring. 


810  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

Morelia  has  one  of  the  few  really  impressive  cathedrals 
in  Mexico.  The  sacristy  is  very  beautiful,  and  there  is 
much  fine  carving  in  the  choir.  The  towers  are  finely 
proportioned,  and  the  effect  of  the  exterior  is  symmetri- 
cal and  imposing.  There  are  several  other  handsome 
churches  in  the  town,  but  this  ranks  among  the  most  pre- 
tentious in  Mexico.  In  general  terms  it  is  safe  to  affirm 
that,  in  excellence  of  architectural  design  and  in  richness 
of  interior  decoration,  there  are  at  least  six  churches  in 
Mexico  surpassing  any  cathedral  in  South  America  that 
can  be  named.  There  may,  or  may  not,  be  more  piety, 
but  certainly  there  is  better  art.  Another  distinguish- 
ing characteristic  of  Morelia  is  its  charming  pleasure- 
grounds.  In  addition  to  the  plazas  on  each  side  of  the 
cathedral,  there  is  an  alameda  at  the  eastern  end  of 
the  town,  where  a  long  stone  causeway,  with  broad  para- 
pets and  benches,  is  shaded  with  trees.  This  causeway 
is  spanned  by  an  aqueduct,  and  it  is  a  delightful  place 
for  outdoor  music.  Since  I  have  compared  the  eccle- 
siastical architecture  of  Mexico  with  that  of  South 
America,  it  may  be  well  to  add  that  with  the  exception 
of  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  Santiago  in  Chili  there  are  no 
cities  in  the  far  South  possessing  such  artistic  plazas  and 
alamedas  as  are  seen  in  Aztec  land.  Spanish  regularitjr 
and  landscape  gardening  have  left  their  impress  upon 
Mexican  cities,  but  in  the  aboriginal  blood  there  must 
have  been  a  strain  of  passion  for  decorative  effect. 

From  Morelia  I  made  an  excursion  with  one  of  the 
students  of  the  college  to  Tzintzuntzan.  The  village 
was  formerly  inaccessible,  but  it  is  now  readily  reached 
from  Patzcuaro,  the  terminus  of  the  Morelia  branch  of 
the  National  Railway.  From  a  picturesque  hacienda, 
where  a  clean  bed  and  delicious  white  fish  broiled  to  a 


A   CIRCUIT   OF   MEXICAN   TOWNS  311 

turn  are  to  be  had,  a  little  steamer  crosses  the  lake  to 
Erangaricuaro,  a  curious  Indian  village,  where  barges 
are  filled  with  lumber  cut  in  the  mountains  near  by. 
We  started  before  seven  in  the  morning  with  a  double 
portion  of  delicious  coffee  from  Ur4upam  and  two  eggs ; 
for  breakfast  in  the  Indian  fonda  at  Erangaricuaro  would 
be  delayed  until  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  The  sun 
was  hardly  high  enough  above  the  eastern  mountains  to 
light  up  the  weather-beaten  face  of  the  hospitable  plan- 
tation-house, with  its  farm  buildings  and  orderly  kitchen 
garden ;  but  the  lake  was  already  revealed  in  the  same 
bewitching  loveliness  which  enchanted  Humboldt,  the 
wisest  and  least  imaginative  of  travellers.  There  are 
larger  lakes  in  Mexico,  Chapala,  near  Guadalajara,  be- 
ing three  times  as  long;  but  there  is  none  to  be  com- 
pared with  it  in  beauty.  Lake  Patzcuaro  is  well  named, 
in  the  Tarascan  tongue,  the  place  of  delights.  It  is 
encircled  with  mountains  and  sealed  with  flowering 
islands.  Twenty-five  miles  in  length  by  ten  in  breadth, 
it  is  a  miniature  Lake  George  at  an  altitude  of  7000 
feet  above  the  sea.  Bold  mountain  peaks  cleave  the 
sky,  with  Tzirate  towering  afar  in  stately  splendor  and 
the  treacherous  volcano,  Jorullo,  looming  up  ominously 
in  the  south.  The  undulating  banks  are  robed  in  ex- 
quisite freshness  of  verdure.  The  islands  Xanicho, 
Xardcuaro  and  Pacanda,  with  their  fishing  hamlets,  are 
mirrored  in  the  waters  with  the  clouds  hanging  over 
them ;  and  the  visitor  seems  to  see  what  he  could  not 
find  in  the  lakes  of  the  Valley  of  INIexico,  the  fabled 
floating  gardens  of  Aztec  days.  Great  swarms  of  wild 
duck  are  fluttering  over  the  tranquil  surface  of  the  lake, 
undisturbed  by  the  sportsman's  rifle.  It  seems  like  a 
deserted  lake,  for  there  are  no  signs  of  life  in  the  fishing 


312  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

hamlets.  The  few  Indians  gliding  noiselessly  by  with 
their  rapt,  impassive  faces,  in  their  primitive  canoes,  are 
ghosts  of  the  Tarascan  past  rather  than  moving  figures 
in  the  Mexico  of  to-day.  The  noisy,  puffing  little 
steamer,  with  its  lumber  barge,  appears  out  of  place  on 
this  tranquil  sheet  of  water.  It  is  a  region  which  seems 
to  belong  to  the  dreamy  reaches  of  a  storied  past. 

There  was  an  empire,  with  Tzintziintzan  as  its  capital, 
when  Cortes  invaded  Mexico.  From  the  Pacific  to  the 
frontiers  of  the  Aztecs  the  Tarascan  kings  held  sway. 
Their  palaces  were  in  the  valley  of  Patzcuaro,  on  the 
shores  of  the  lake  and  on  the  slopes  of  Tzirate.  For- 
tresses were  on  the  islands  and  paved  roads,  and  tim- 
bered subterranean  passages  connected  the  cities.  At 
Iguatzio  there  was  an  ancient  pyramid.  There  were 
temples  with  hideous  carved  idols,  and  massive  sepul- 
chres for  Tarascan  sovereigns.  It  was  a  peaceful  race, 
but  when  attacked  it  was  warlike  and  powerful,  as  the 
Aztecs  learned  to  their  cost.  Cortes,  when  he  had  con- 
quered the  great  city  beside  the  eastern  lakes,  sent,  not 
an  army,  but  missionaries  to  Tzintzuntzan,  and  they 
were  received  gladly.  The  idols  were  overthrown  and 
the  Tarascan  King  himself  embraced  Christianity.  Then 
came  one  of  the  atrocities  of  the  Spanish  Conquest.  The 
King  was  burned  at  the  stake  for  withholding  treasures 
from  a  commission  of  covetous  adventurers.  The  Ta- 
rascan chiefs  were  put  to  death  with  horrible  torture, 
and  the  affrighted  natives  were  scattered  among  the 
mountains  of  Lake  Patzcuaro.  This  massacre  caused 
indignation  in  the  Spanish  Court,  and  Quiroga  was 
sent  out  to  renew  the  faith  of  the  natives  in  a  religion 
which  had  been  defiled  by  odious  crimes.  He  was  the 
first  bishop  of  Michoacan,  and  he  was    consecrated  at 


A   CIRCUIT  OF  MEXICAN  T^OWNS  313 

Tzintzuntzan.  He  founded  the  first  college  in  Mexico, 
and  preached  a  gospel  of  love  and  good  works,  which 
won  the  hearts  of  the  simple  and  docile  Tarascans. 
Three  centuries  have  passed  since  his  death,  but  his 
memory  is  reverenced  still  by  the  Indian  population  in 
the  fishing  villages.  The  glory  of  the  Tarascan  empire 
has  jjassed  away,  but  not  the  gratitude  of  the  race  to 
the  saintly  man  who  taught  them  ways  of  pleasantness 
and  peace. 

It  is  now  eleven  o'clock,  and  the  two  belfries  of  the 
ancient  churches  invite  approach  from  the  beach.  A 
long  lane  leads  up  the  slope  of  one  of  the  two  hills  over 
which  the  adobe  cabins  are  scattered.  A  throng  of  Ind- 
ians gaze  at  the  visitors  with  indifferent  interest  at  the 
landing,  and  a  guide  lazily  consents  to  conduct  the 
party  to  the  churches.  The  houses  are  the  rudest  cells 
of  sun-dried  clay,  and  there  are  roses  blooming  over  the 
doorways,  and  luxuriant  vines  have  covered  the  crum- 
bling walls  with  fragrant  verdure.  One  cabin  is  like 
another,  for  a  spirit  of  equality  prevails  among  this  sim- 
ple-minded people,  and  no  one  is  anxious  to  have  a  better 
house  than  his  neighbor.  There  are  pigs  in  the  lanes, 
common  red  pottery  in  the  cupboards,  and  for  all  the  uni- 
form diet  of  maize-cakes  and  beans.  Even  in  the  rudest 
and  most  neglected  dwelling  there  is  some  faint  indica- 
tion of  that  love  of  decorative  effect  which  is  characteris- 
tic of  the  Mexican  people.  The  municipal  hall  is  in  a 
sorry  state  of  decay,  but  within  there  is  a  picture  of  the 
last  Tarascan  King's  conversion  to  Christianity.  Further 
on  is  the  old  wall  surrounding  the  churches,  and  behind 
it  there  is  a  grove  of  olive  trees,  planted  by  the  Francis- 
can clergy,  who  labored  there  more  than  three  centuries 
ago.     The  cathedral  seat  was  transferred  even  in  Bishop 


314  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

Quiroga's  time  ;  the  college  was  also  shifted  to  Vallado- 
lid;  the  hospital  was  abandoned,  and  the  church  and 
cloister  were  left  to  fall  into  decay  and  ruin ;  but  the 
olive  orchard  remains  fresh  and  beautiful  above  the 
graves  where  the  pious  Catholic  missionaries  were 
buried  in  the  tangled  garden  of  the  convent. 

One  thing  more  remains  to  match  the  beauty  of  these 
olive  trees.  The  parish  church  is  open,  and  Indians  are 
kneeling  in  front  of  the  most  beautiful  picture  in  Mexico. 
It  hangs  in  the  sacristy  of  the  shabby  little  enclosure 
and  is  dimly  lighted  by  a  single  square  of  white  glass 
near  the  roof.  It  is  a  large  panel  representing  the  En- 
tombment of  Christ,  with  the  Virgin,  Magdalen,  Saint 
John,  and  seven  other  figures,  one  of  whom  is  said  to 
resemble  Philip  II.  This  is  the  picture  which  Titian  is 
reported  to  have  painted,  and  the  King  to  have  sent  to 
Quiroga  as  a  token  of  his  personal  regard.  Whether  the 
tradition  be  well  authenticated  or  not,  it  is  a  noble  work 
of  art,  worthy  of  any  master.  The  strong  drawing  of 
the  figures,  the  contrasted  coloring  of  living  and  dead 
flesh,  the  artistic  effects  of  grouping,  the  delicate  bit  of 
landscape  in  the  background,  and  the  profound  study  of 
light  and  shade  are  evidences  that  some  master  hand, 
whether  Titian's  or  a  pupil's,  was  laboriously  employed 
on  this  canvas.  Even  in  the  dim  light  of  the  forlorn 
little  chapel  it  shines  and  glows,  a  masterpiece  of  color- 
ing and  composition,  superior  to  any  canvas  in  the  great 
art  gallery  in  Mexico. 

There  is  perhaps  no  experience  which  a  sympathetic 
traveller  can  have  in  Mexico  more  suggestive  than  is 
offered  by  a  glimpse  of  the  interior  of  this  parish 
church.  The  surroundings  are  bare  and  mean,  the 
imaofes  of  Christ  on  the  liia:h  altar  are  coarse  and  vul- 


A  CIRCUIT   OF   MEXICAN  TOWNS  315 

gar,  and  both  priests  and  people  are  ignorant  and  super- 
stitious ;  yet  incongruous  as  the  effect  seems,  an  art 
treasure  is  jealously  guarded  and  worshipped  almost  as 
an  idol  by  the  impoverished  population  of  this  ruined 
village.  Large  sums  have  been  offered  both  by  Ameri- 
cans and  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  in  Mexico  for 
this  painting,  but  it  cannot  be  purchased.  The  Taras- 
can  worshippers  at  this  forlorn  shrine  kneel  beside  the 
picture  and  offer  the  incense  of  simple-minded  adora- 
tion to  the  dead  Christ  and  to  the  living  Mary,  and  in 
their  rude,  unlettered  way  appreciate  that  they  have 
something  almost  divine  that  makes  their  temple  glori- 
ous. Perhaps  the  little  Indian  women  say  their  prayers 
and  glance  with  their  piercing  black  eyes  at  the  pictured 
group,  and  then  creep  out  of  the  cloister  with  a  feeling 
that  they  have  been  nearer  heaven.  Certainly  the  tall 
Tarascan  men  follow  a  stranger  into  the  church  and 
stand  around  him  while  he  is  there  very  much  as  a  cor- 
don of  police  surrounds  a  suspected  pickpocket.  The 
natives  are  bent  upon  protecting  their  art  treasure  with 
aboriginal  vigilance  against  the  depredations  of  foreign 
invaders.  It  is  the  last  remnant  of  the  faded  grandeur 
of  their  race,  and  they  cling  to  it  with  passionate  inten- 
sity of  feeling. 

From  Patzcuaro  I  turned  northward,  halting  at  Morelia 
for  a  few  days,  to  be  refreshed  by  a  second  glimpse  of  its 
fine  Cathedral  and  lovely  plazas,  and  journeying  thence 
to  Acdmbaro  to  renew  acquaintance  with  an  American 
friend,  who  had  accompanied  me  from  Havana  to  Vera 
Cruz,  Orizaba,  Puebla,  and  Mexico.  The  railway  ride 
is  a  charming  one  all  the  way  from  Patzcuaro.  Several 
villages  of  great  antiquity  are  passed,  and  one  of  the 
finest  haciendas  to  be  seen  in  Mexico  flashes  into  view. 


816  TROPICAL  AlVIERICA 

There  are  entrancing  vistas  of  Lake  Cuitzeo,  a  broad  sheet 
of  water  inferior  only  to  Lake  Patzcuaro  in  tranquil 
beauty  and  in  the  bold  setting  of  surrounding  highlands. 
Acdmbaro  lies  in  a  beautiful  valley  with  mountains 
sloping  gently  toward  the  lake.  Here  the  main  line  of 
the  Mexican  National  leading  from  the  capital  to  Laredo 
is  intercepted,  and  the  returning  traveller  boxes  the 
compass  and  sets  his  face  in  the  direction  of  home. 

There  was  the  promise  of  great  progress  when  this 
straggling  town  attained  to  the  dignity  of  a  railway 
junction.  A  curious  stone  bridge  built  across  the  Lerma 
was  an  antiquated  reminder  of  the  importance  of  the 
village  in  earlier  times,  when  it  commanded  the  ap- 
proaches to  Mexico  from  the  Pacific  coast.  As  the 
town  had  once  been  a  centre  of  transit  trade  and  indus- 
trial activity,  there  was  ground  for  hoping  that  its  fort- 
unes Avould  revive  in  the  new  era  of  railway  progress. 
Ac4mbaro  may  have  disappointed  the  expectations  of 
railway  projectors,  but  it  is  a  quaint  and  picturesque 
halting-place  for  the  traveller,  who  sees  there  not  only 
Indian  huts  and  dilapidated  adobe  houses,  but  also  one 
of  the  oldest  churches  in  Mexico.  The  parish  church 
of  San  Francisco  dates  back  to  1582,  and  has  an  interior 
which  has  escaped  the  reformatory  ravages  of  restora- 
tion decorators.  The  miniature  plaza,  the  churchyard, 
with  its  noble  trees,  a  series  of  little  chapels  marking 
the  stations  of  the  cross,  and  the  historic  bridge  offer 
characteristic  glimpses  of  that  old-time  Mexico  which 
the  American  tourist  is  always  eager  to  see.  Acdmbaro 
has  also  a  representative  population  that  occupies  middle 
ground  between  the  degradation  of  Indian  villages  and 
the  social  progress  of  the  prosperous  cities  of  Mexico. 
It  is  a  convenient  place  for  striking  an  average  esti- 


A  CIRCUIT   OF  MEXICAN  TOWNS  317 

mate  of  the  real  condition  of  the  country.  It  is  con- 
servative almost  to  the  point  of  sluggishness,  but  it  is 
not  a  stationary  population.  There  are  signs  of  prog- 
ress even  in  the  neglected  streets.  There  are  artistic 
touches  in  the  surroundings  of  the  adobe  houses.  A 
charm  of  manner  and  a  grace  of  movement  in  the 
women  favorably  impress  the  visitor. 

Aguas  Calientes  and  San  Luis  Potosf  offer  a  striking 
contrast  between  what  is  stagnant  and  what  is  progres- 
sive in  Mexican  civilization.  Each  was  founded  in  the 
century  of  the  Spanish  Conquest;  but  one  has  languished 
with  a  declining  population  and  a  siDurious  reputation 
as  a  watering-place,  while  the  other  has  received  the 
impulse  of  an  invigorating  industrial  movement.  Aguas 
Calientes  is  a  watering-place  without  wealth,  fashion, 
drives,  or  scenic  attractions.  It  has  a  central  square 
and  a  larger  public  garden,  each  ornamented  with  a 
fountain  and  parterres  of  coarse  flowers ;  but  neither  is 
well  cared  for,  nor  are  there  any  bewildering  effects  of 
tropical  trees  and  luxuriant  vegetation.  The  town  is 
built  on  the  rocky  centre  of  an  arid  plain,  where  neither 
vineyards  nor  verdure  are  to  be  seen.  The  streets  are 
narrow  and  dingy ;  the  churches  and  public  buildings 
are  mediocre;  and  the  houses  are  low,  whitewashed 
adobe  structures,  without  glass  in  the  windows  or 
warmth  of  color.  The  alameda  is  a  neglected  roadway 
with  a  row  of  tall  trees  and  a  trench  of  tepid  water. 
Morning  and  afternoon  the  laundry  work  of  the  town 
is  carried  on  there,  and  hundreds  of  Indian  hags  are 
seen  washing  clothes  in  the  trench  and  hanging  them 
out  to  dry  on  bushes  and  rocks.  It  is  this  study  from 
life  which  is  the  only  novel  and  characteristic  feature 
of  the   Mexican  watering-place,  unless  the  desiccated 


318  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

monk  in  the  crypt  is  to  be  added,  the  only  catalogued 
attraction  of  Aguas  Calientes  for  which  I  failed  to  look. 

The  baths  are  excellent,  whatever  may  be  said  of  the 
wanton  disregard  of  conventionalities  displayed  by  the 
rollicking  women  outside.  A  hot-water  bath  is  a 
wholesome  thing  for  a  travel-stained  wanderer  in 
Mexico,  but  it  does  not  offer  adequate  compensation  to 
the  sightseer  whose  days  are  numbered  in  the  land  of 
the  picturesque.  Aguas  Calientes  with  its  hideous 
scrub-women  and  naked  amphibians  is  hardly  worth  the 
attention  of  the  traveller  who  is  pressed  for  time.  He 
will  do  better  to  hasten  to  Leon  and  Guanajuato,  one 
a  thriving  manufactuiing  city  and  the  other  a  quaint 
mining  town  with  picturesque  and  grotesque  surround- 
ings, and  not  even  to  waste  a  day  in  this  dilapidated 
and  uninteresting  town.  Aguas  Calientes  seems  to  lie 
outside  the  range  gf  the  industrial  movement  which  is 
transforming  the  face  of  Mexico.  There  is  no  stir  of 
activity  in  its  streets ;  there  are  no  new  industries ;  it 
is  a  centre  of  unremunerative  agriculture ;  and  its 
population  is  declining.  With  its  ill-fed,  shambling 
burros,  its  clumsy,  antiquated  carts,  and  its  languid  and 
unprogressive  population,  it  represents  old-time  Mexico. 

San  Luis  Potosi  has  been  considered  in  revolutionary 
times  the  most  important  strategic  centre  for  military 
operations  in  Mexico.  The  railways  have  converted  it 
into  a  commercial  capital  of  the  first  rank.  The  Mexican 
National  made  it  the  centre  of  its  trunk  system  from 
Laredo  to  the  city  of  Mexico,  building  the  handsomest 
stone  railway  station  to  be  seen  in  the  country.  The 
Mexican  Central,  in  opening  a  new  port  at  Tampico, 
has  constructed  a  branch  line  to  the  coast  with  San 
Luis  Potosi  as  the  core.     It  is  a  city  with  a  population 


A   CIRCUIT   OF   MEXICAN  TOWXS  319 

of  60,000,  is  growing  rapidly  and  already  pulsating  with 
business  activity.  Substantially  built  and  well  laid  out, 
with  a  spacious  alameda  and  three  handsome  plazas 
close  together,  it  has  an  imposing  cathedral  and  many 
fine  churches,  a  State  capital,  a  public  library,  a  museum, 
a  mint,  a  college,  hospitals,  and  many  other  notable 
structures.  Adobe  is  already  giving  place  to  an  ex- 
cellent building  stone,  which  is  found  in  the  valley 
outside  the  city.  New  railway  depots  and  other  large 
buildings  are  in  course  of  construction  in  every  quarter 
of  the  town,  and  there  is  an  unmistakable  air  of  life, 
bustle,  and  enterprise  in  the  streets.  The  stores  are 
stocked  with  many  classes  of  merchandise  not  seen  in 
cities  further  south.  There  are  fine  displays  of  American 
manufactures  and  especially  of  agricultural  implements 
and  machinery.  The  city  will  profit  largely  by  the 
commercial  development  of  Tampico,  following  the 
successful  completion  of  the  jetties.  Coal,  lumber, 
cotton,  and  iron,  when  exported  on  a  large  scale  from 
the  United  States,  will  be  brought  to  San  Luis  Potosi 
as  a  smelting  and  manufacturing  centre.  The  new 
smelting  works  with  facilities  for  the  reduction  of  ores 
of  all  grades  have  created  an  industry  which  will  largely 
increase  the  business  of  the  city.  Other  manufacturing 
enterprises  are  already  established,  and  the  material 
prosperity  of  the  town  is  apparent.  He  must  be  a  dull 
observer  who  does  not  forecast  the  growing  importance 
of  this  flourishing  city  in  the  Mexico  of  the  future, 
which  is  destined  to  be  vitalized  with  American  energy. 
There  are  more  Americans  in  Monterey  than  in  any 
other  Mexican  city  except  the  national  capital.  The 
stores  are  filled  with  Yankee  notions,  and  the  ware- 
houses  with   improved   farm   implements   and   mining 


320  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

machinery.  American  capital  is  going  into  the  largest 
of  the  three  smelting  works  under  construction,  and  the 
other  two  are  under  American  management.  The  rail- 
ways have  been  built  and  are  operated  by  Americans. 
The  factories,  which  are  employing  a  large  share  of  the 
working  population,  are  falling  into  American  hands. 
The  impulse  which  the  industrial  development  of  north- 
ern Mexico  has  received  since  the  completion  of  the 
leading  railways,  the  National,  International,  and  Cen- 
tral, has  come  from  the  impact  of  northern  energy. 
Monterey  is  destined  to  become  a  great  centre  of  manu- 
facturing and  border  trade,  and  to  be  identified  more 
and  more  closely  every  year  with  the  commercial  and 
mining  interests  of  the  western  States  of  the  American 
Union.  While  losing  its  characteristics  as  a  Mexican 
city,  it  is  assimilating  the  elements  of  American  enter- 
prise, energy,  and  progress.  There  are  adequate  com- 
pensations for  the  sacrifice  of  those  picturesque  effects 
of  architecture  and  costumes  which  tourists  from  the 
North  miss  when  they  are  seeing  the  sights  of  the  town. 
Monterey  must  always,  however,  be  a  city  worth  visit- 
ing, for  it  commands  a  grand  prospect  of  the  Sierra 
Madre,  and  lies  in  the  centre  of  a  plain  between  two 
imposing  mountains,  Silla  and  Mitras.  With  an  eleva- 
tion of  1800  feet  above  the  sea,  it  has  a  fine,  equable 
climate  and  all  the  conditions  required  for  public  health. 
As  the  Rio  Grande  is  approached,  signs  of  American 
influence  are  multiplied.  At  Aguas  Calientes  there  is 
pie  ;  at  Catorce  the  cream-jug  is  restored  to  its  place  in 
the  domestic  economy  ;  at  Saltillo  there  are  biscuits  and 
griddle-cakes ;  and  at  Monterey  breakfast  is  served  at 
half-past  seven,  with  toast,  steak,  fried  potatoes,  and  an 
omelet.     To  these  dietary  changes  from  Central  Mex- 


A   CIRCUIT   OF   MEXICAN   TOWNS  321 

ico,  where  the  heavens  rain  tortillas,  and  where  frijoles 
and  tomalis  are  gathered  like  manna  in  the  dew}^  morn- 
ing, are  added  otlier  tokens  of  contact  and  affiliation 
with  the  northern  race.  The  iron-pointed,  crooked 
stick  is  replaced  by  the  improved  American  plow.  The 
clumsy  carts  with  solid  wheels  have  disappeared,  and  in 
their  place  are  seen  light  farm  wagons  from  the  North. 
The  saw-toothed  sickle  has  gone  out  of  use,  and  cradles, 
reapers,  and  threshing-machines  of  American  manufact- 
ure are  in  the  barns.  In  Monterey  there  is  a  marked 
reaction  against  the  square,  flat-roofed  houses  with  gar- 
dens in  the  interior  courts,  and  a  gradual  approach  to 
American  architecture.  The  roofs  at  least  are  begin- 
ning to  tilt,  and  frame  houses  with  piazzas  are  familiar 
objects.  There  is  a  large  and  influential  northern  col- 
ony, and  it  is  changing  the  aspect  of  the  city.  English 
is  spoken  at  every  turn.  The  characteristic  Mexican 
costumes  are  missed  from  the  plaza.  The  fanciful 
names  usually  applied  to  Spanish-American  shops  as 
street  signs  are  falling  into  disfavor,  and  storekeepers 
are  venturing  to  put  their  own  names  in  large  gilt  let- 
ters over  their  doors.  The  hotels  are  conducted  on  the 
American  plan  without  any  attempt  at  compromise. 
The  most  significant  sign  of  all  is  the  general  suspen- 
sion of  business  on  Sunday.  In  other  Mexican  cities 
the  stores  are  open  at  all  hours  on  that  day,  but  in 
Monterey  the  iron  gates  are  closed  and  the  wooden 
shutters  are  in  place.  The  band  plays  in  the  plaza 
afternoon  and  evening,  and  there  is  a  bull-fight  adver- 
tised. The  Spanish  spirit  is  still  disclosed  by  the  recre- 
ations of  tii€  city;  but  the  old  order  of  ideas,  habits, 
and  tendencies  is  passing  away.  The  Americans  have 
captured  Monterey. 


322  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

Laredo,  El  Paso,  and  Eagle  Pass  are  border  custom- 
houses and  railway  centres,  and  their  commercial  impor- 
tance is  increasing  every  year.  On  each  side  of  the 
Rio  Grande  at  these  points  there  are  rambling  towns 
bristling  with  energy.  One  seems  to  be  on  American 
soil  long  before  he  crosses  the  river.  In  Nuevo  Laredo, 
where  my  circuit  of  the  cities  of  the  coast  and  table- 
land was  rounded  out,  few  characteristic  Mexican 
faces  and  costumes  are  seen,  and  English  is  practically 
the  only  language.  A  visitor  entering  Mexico  in  quest 
of  relics  of  the  grossly  overrated  Aztec  civilization,  and 
preoccupied  with  premonitions  of  picturesque  scenery, 
quaint  costumes,  and  Saracenic  and  Renaissance  archi- 
tecture, finds  a  country  that  is  essentially  modernized 
and  quickened  with  progressive  impulses.  Long  before 
he  reaches  the  border,  his  interest  in  what  is  historic  and 
musty  is  impaired,  and  progressive  Mexico  commands 
his  undivided  attention.  Civilization  is  doing  a  great 
work  in  that  benighted  land,  and  Americans  have  a 
large  and  increasing  share  in  it.  Commercial  union 
between  the  two  great  silver-producing  countries  of 
the  world  is  the  order  of  modern  progress.  That  was 
what  nature  intended  when  the  Rio  Grande  was  made 
a  shallow  stream  that  could  be  easily  bridged  for  inter- 
national railways,  and  the  Mexican  seaboards  were  left 
without  harbors  for  the  convenience  of  commerce. 


XVI 
FUTURE   OF   MEXICO 

THE   AGRICULTUKAL    INDUSTRIES  —  THE    CACTUS    PROCESSION 

—  CONSERVATISM  AND    LABOR BLUNDERS    OF    AMERICAN 

DIPLOMACY     AND     TARIFF-MAKING COMMERCIAL     UNION 

BETWEEN       SILVER  -  PRODUCING      COUNTRIES SIGNS      OF 

PROGRESS — A   NEW   ORDER   OF   INTELLECTUAL    INDEPEND- 
ENCE 

In  making  the  circuit  of  the  cities  of  Mexico  I  had 
travelled  from  Yucatan  and  the  Gulf  ports  to  the  hot 
lands  of  the  Pacific  and  "thence  northward  to  the  border. 
Such  a  journey  reveals  all  the  important  agricultural 
industries,  and  also  the  obstacles  to  be  overcome  before 
Mexico  can  be  converted  into  a  rich  and  prosperous 
farming  country.  The  coast  belts  are  narrow  and 
uninhabitable,  but  on  the  slopes  of  the  mountains  on 
the  Pacific  side,  as  well  as  at  Orizaba  and  Jalapa  on 
the  Gulf  side,  are  coffee,  sugar,  and  tobacco  lands  of 
the  highest  productiveness.  There  are  regions  of  the 
greatest  promise  which  practically  have  not  been 
explored.  At  Cuernavaca,  not  fifty  miles  from  the 
city  of  Mexico,  sugar-cane  grows  remarkably  well,  and 
a  short  distance  from  Patzcuaro  one  of  the  best  coffees 
of  the  world  is  produced,  while  Guadalajara  is  on  the 
edge  of  the  famous  Colima  hot  lands ;  but  the  railways 
stop  at  these  outposts  and  long  stretches  of  the  most 
fertile  hot  lands  of  Mexico  remain  closed  to  agriculture 

323 


324  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

and  trade.  From  Cuernavaca  it  is  a  week's  mule  jour- 
ney over  the  mountains  to  Acapulco.  From  Guadala- 
jara to  San  Bias  there  is  hardly  anything  more  than  a 
mule  track,  and  to  Colima  and  Manzanillo  there  is  a 
week's  journey  by  diligence,  horse,  and  mule.  From 
Patzcuaro  to  Colima  there  are  no  regular  means  of 
communication,  although  the  Mexican  National  oper- 
ates a  railway  from  the  terminus  to  the  coast,  and  has 
projected  a  line  all  the  way.  The  ports  on  the  Pacific 
are  all  desolate  and  ruined  towns,  languishing  for  the 
trade  which  railways  only  can  supply.  Coffee  and 
suo-ar  are  carried  down  the  mountains  or  into  Patzcuaro 
and  Guadalajara  by  mule.  The  West  Coast  coffee  lands 
are  virtually  undeveloped.  The  railways  must  first  be 
built,  and  then  the  richest  agricultural  belt  of  the 
Republic  will  be  opened.  Most  of  the  processes  for 
making  sugar  are  of  a  primitive  kind,  and  highly  im- 
proved milling  machinery  is  unknown.  Wooden  cylin- 
ders are  still  moved  by  horse-power;  and  the  sugar 
is  crystallized  from  the  old-fashioned  mud-pies.  The 
large  investment  of  capital  required  for  successful  culti- 
vation of  cane  prevents  the  development  of  this  indus- 
try. Coffee  raised  in  banana  jungles  is  the  best  crop 
of  the  hot  lands.  The  most  remunerative  agricultural 
export  in  the  temperate  zone  is  the  fibre  of  the  maguey. 
As  soon  as  the  cocoanut  clumps  and  banana  planta- 
tions of  the  Gulf  seaboard  have  been  passed  the  cactus 
procession  opens,  and  it  does  not  end  until  the  hot 
lands  of  the  opposite  coast  are  reached.  Nearly  every 
species  is  to  be  found  growing  in  grotesque  form,  from 
creeping  stems  and  round  balls  bristling  with  spikes 
to  columnar  masses  of  prickly  pear  and  organ  cactus. 
The  Turk's  Cap,  set  with  thorns,  springs  from  crevices 


FUTURE   OF   MEXICO  325 

of  the  rocks  at  great  altitudes.  Cereus  Grandifloras 
wastes  the  sweetness  and  glorious  radiance  of  its  short- 
lived bloom  in  deserted  pastures.  There  are  palisades 
of  the  tall,  shapely  organ  cactus  lining  the  railways,  and 
there  are  ragged  and  loose-jointed  hedges  of  mingled 
varieties  for  corralling  cattlco  In  this  motley  throng 
the  maguey,  armed  with  its  bristling  sheath  of  sword- 
blades,  forms  the  rank  and  file.  All  the  way  from 
Tehuantepec  to  the  Rio  Grande  it  is  seen,  now  massed 
in  cultivated  fields  of  hundreds  of  acres,  and  again 
straggling  in  neglected  wildness  by  the  roadside,  or 
on  the  rocky  crests  of  inaccessible  hills.  So  sluggish 
is  its  vital  action  that  it  grows  and  thrives  where  other 
forms  of  vegetation  perish  from  sheer  inanition.  Stand- 
ing in  stony  places  where  the  soil  is  thin  and  sterile,  it 
repeats  in  silence  the  old  Mosaic  miracle  of  striking 
water  from  the  heart  of  the  rock. 

The  Indian  races  used  the  maguey  in  many  ways 
before  the  Conquest,  and  it  is  still  one  of  their  chief 
resources.  It  was  the  Toltec's  wine  and  the  Aztec's 
paper.  It  is  the  Mexican  pulque,  and  it  is  one  of  the 
most  useful  fibres  known  to  textile  industry.  From 
the  refuse  leaves  a  thatch  is  made  with  which  the 
Indian  huts  are  covered,  and  when  there  is  no  other 
fuel  they  serve  to  keep  the  pot  boiling.  The  Aztec 
housewives  went  to  the  leaves  of  the  maguey  as  to  a 
needle-book  or  a  work-basket  in  which  to  find  pins, 
needles,  and  thread.  The  Indian  women  still  use  the 
thorns  for  pins  and  the  longer  spikes  for  needles,  if 
they  do  not  seek  for  thread  in  the  fibre  of  the  youngest 
plants.  When  the  honey  water  is  clarified  with  lime, 
boiled  down  into  syrup,  and  crystallized  after  filtration, 
good  raw  sugar  is  made.     As  a  valuable  fibre-plant  the 


326  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

maguey  is  the  basis  of  an  industry  which  is  steadily 
increasing  in  importance.  It  is  still  largely  a  manual 
process,  satisfactory  machines  for  dressing  the  fibre  not 
having  been  introduced.  The  Indian  women  have  the 
patience  required  for  preparing  it  for  market,  and  the 
work  is  mainly  done  in  their  huts.  Superior  dressing- 
machines  will  ultimately  displace  hand  labor,  and  the 
production  of  ixtle  fibre  will  then  be  greatly  increased. 

While  Mexico  is  generally  reputed  to  be  one  of  the 
richest  agricultural  countries  on  the  continent,  it  pro- 
duces barely  enough  corn  and  beans  to  keep  an  impov- 
erished population  alive.  With  tropical  belts  on  the 
Gulf  and  Pacific  coasts  preeminently  adapted  for  the 
cultivation  of  sugar  and  cotton,  it  has  no  surplus  of 
either  crop  for  export.  There  are  no  finer  coffee  lands 
in  the  world  than  the  mountain  slopes  of  Vera  Cruz, 
Michoacan,  Jalisco,  Guerrero,  and  Oaxaca;  but  the 
product  is  inconsiderable  in  comparison  with  that  of 
Brazil.  With  the  exception  of  coffee,  hides,  and  raw 
fibre,  Mexico  has  only  a  small  surplus  of  agricultural 
produce  to  send  to  the  American  market,  which  receives 
the  bulk  of  the  exports  of  the  West  Indies  and  South 
America.  The  inertia  of  its  working  population,  com- 
bined with  a  deficient  water  supply  and  an  unprogres-. 
sive  agrarian  system,  neutralizes  the  advantages  of  vast 
extent  of  territory,  variety  of  natural  products,  and 
range  of  climate. 

There  is  no  conservatism  like  that  of  the  Mexican 
peons.  They  are  accustomed  to  the  old  methods  of  agri- 
culture, and  they  will  not  depart  from  them.  On  the 
largest  haciendas  American  plows  have  been  introduced; 
but  the  laborers  dislike  them,  and  are  constantly  run- 
ning them  against  rocks  and  deliberately  smashing  them. 


FUTURE   OF   MEXICO  327 

Wherever  farming  is  conducted  on  a  small  scale  the 
ancient  crooked-stick  is  used  as  a  substitute  for  the 
plow.  Sometimes  the  shorter  fork  is  pointed  with  iron, 
but  invariably  there  is  a  single  handle.  In  Indian 
villages  I  saw  ox-teams  lashed  to  the  longer  stick  by 
rawhide  thongs  fastened  to  their  horns.  The  peons 
prefer  their  own  implement,  because  they  do  not  consider 
it  necessary  to  do  more  than  to  scratch  the  earth  when 
they  raise  their  corn,  beans,  and  peppers.  Deep  plow- 
ing in  their  estimation  involves  waste  of  energy  in  a 
land  favored  with  perpetual  spring,  and  where  the 
maguey  grows  without  cultivation  in  every  hollow  and 
on  ever}^  hillside. 

The  Mexican  peasant  has,  in  addition  to  his  antiquated 
plow,  a  hoe  and  a  sickle,  each  patterned  after  those 
used  in  Goshen  under  the  Pharaohs.  The  hoe  is  pon- 
derous and  clumsy,  and  looks  like  a  huge  rammer.  The 
sickle  has  a  full  set  of  teeth  in  place  of  a  sharp  edge. 
With  the  hoe  the  rank  growth  of  weeds  is  kept  down, 
and  irrigating  trenches  are  opened  and  closed;  and 
with  the  sickle  small  grains  are  harvested.  Improved 
reapers  and  cultivators  are  never  seen  in  Central  Mexico 
except  on  a  few  large  estates.  Threshing  machines 
have  been  sparingly  introduced.  The  old-time  method 
of  driving  mules  around  a  ring,  and  having  them  thresh 
out  the  wheat  with  their  heels,  is  retained.  Corn  is  the 
staple  food  of  the  population,  and  it  is  husked  by  hand 
and  ground  with  a  roller  upon  a  stone  after  it  has  been 
soaked  in  hot  water  and  lime  over  night.  The  chief 
occupation  of  women  of  the  lower  classes  is  the  prepara- 
tion of  tortillas  or  maize  cakes,  the  paste  when  ground 
by  the  roller  being  baked  in  a  shallow  pan  over  a  slow 
fire.     The  farm  vehicles  are  of  primitive  construction. 


828  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

The  wheels  are  solid  sections  cut  from  the  trunks  of 
trees  with  the  pith  punctured  for  the  axle.  The  roads 
are  so  rough  that  any  cart  except  a  very  heavy  one  with 
block  wheels  would  be  in  imminent  danger  of  dissolu- 
tion, and  hence  conservatism  may  have  its  use  in  llie 
retention  of  the  old-time  mule  and  ox-carts  to  be  seen 
everywhere  on  the  table-land.  Even  when  more  modern 
vehicles  are  provided  the  wheels  are  of  enormous  cir- 
cumference. In  the  sugar  districts  ricks  for  carrying 
cane  are  mounted  upon  wheels  large  enough  to  move  an 
obelisk. 

Mexico  has  tropical  belts  for  the  cultivation  of 
tobacco,  sugar,  and  coffee  on  a  large  scale  and  a  broad 
plateau,  which  by  reason  of  its  altitude  is  practically  an 
extension  of  the  temperate  zone  into  southern  latitudes. 
Land  alone  will  not  make  a  country  rich.  There  must 
be  an  abundant  water  supply ;  there  must  be  an  enlight- 
ened agrarian  system  by  which  the  number  of  self- 
interested  cultivators  can  be  increased  year  by  year; 
and  there  must  be  an  intelligent  and  industrious  class 
of  farming  laborers.  All  these  conditions  are  lacking 
in  Mexico. 

In  the  elevated  table-land  forming  nine-tenths  of  the 
arable  territory  the  water  supply  is  deficient.  Mexican 
farms  are  largely  dependent  upon  artificial  irrigation  for 
their  productiveness.  Water  has  to  be  collected  and 
stored  in  reservoirs  during  the  rainy  seasorftor  distribu- 
tion during  the  dry  season.  In  the  temperate  zone  the 
possibilities  of  agricultural  development  are  restricted 
by  the  resources  for  irrigation.  The  great  haciendas  in 
the  interior  are  largely  waste  land  owing  to  the  imprac- 
ticability of  obtaining  a  water  supply  for  general  agri- 
culture.    This  is  the  chief  obstacle  to  the  development 


FUTURE   OF   MEXICO  329 

of  farming  industries,  and  it  is  one  which  seems  insu- 
perable since  there  are  no  large  rivers,  very  few  inland 
lakes,  and  tracts  of  forest  land  of  limited  extent.  To 
this  is  added  a  system  of  land  tenure  and  pauperized 
labor  which  offers  the  most  unfavorable  conditions  for 
successful  farming.  The  system  of  taxation  has  oper- 
ated in  Mexico,  as  in  Chili,  to  prevent  the  sale  of  land, 
the  subdivision  of  great  estates,  and  the  creation  of  an 
industrious  class  of  small  farmers.  There  are  a  few 
very  wealthy  land-owners,  but  the  mass  of  the  popula- 
tion is  improvident  and  degraded. 

In  the  Argentine  Confederation  a  horde  of  Spanish 
and  Italian  immigrants  has  been  colonized  in  the  inte- 
rior, and  a  great  impulse  has  been  imparted  to  the  agri- 
cultural development  of  the  country.  In  Mexico  no 
inducements  are  offered  to  European  settlers.  The 
system  of  land  tenure  and  taxation  excludes  immigra- 
tion. The  peons  remain  the  only  class  of  farm  laborers 
which  can  be  employed;  and  while  they  have  their 
virtues  they  are  thoroughly  untrustworthy  and  abso- 
lutely without  ambition  and  thrift.  Peonage  is  pro- 
hibited by  law;  but  in  all  the  Southern  and  Central 
States  it  exists  as  the  only  practicable  method  of  con- 
trolling farm  labor.  It  would  be  gross  exaggeration  to 
assert  that  a  peon  is  still  a  slave,  because  he  is  in  debt 
to  his  employer  and  compelled  to  discharge  his  obliga- 
tion as  in  the  old  days;  but  it  is  the  common  testimony 
of  those  who  have  dealings  with  this  class  of  laborers, 
that  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  lend  them  money,  and 
to  keep  them  heavily  in  debt,  in  order  to  have  work 
done  with  any  approach  to  regularity  and  order. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  more  worthless  class  of 
farm  laborers  than  was  to  be  seen  in  such  sections  of 


330  TKOPICAL   AMERICA 

Michoacan  as  I  visited.  The  Indian  is  able  to  keep 
his  family  aliva  on  35  cents  a  week,  and  this  he  can 
earn  by  working  one  day  in  seven.  If  he  is  willing  to 
do  more  than  this  he  has  a  small  surplus  available  for 
pulque  and  gambling.  If  he  earns  little,  he  has  few 
wants.  He  has  shrewd  practical  sense,  and  is  neither 
quarrelsome  nor  dishonest;  but  he  is  contented  with 
his  poverty  and  degradation,  and  has  no  desire  to  better 
his  condition.  This  is  the  class  of  laborers  upon  which 
Mexican  land-owners  are  dependent  in  sections  remote 
from  the  border.  He  must  be  a  very  credulous  traveller 
who  can  cross  the  plateau,  mingling  with  the  Indian 
population,  and  return  with  a  conviction  that  a  marvel- 
lous development  of  agricultural  resources  is  possible 
within  the  next  twenty-five  or  fifty  years.  In  order  to 
convert  Mexico  into  a  rich  agricultural  country  a  series 
of  miracles  needs  to  be  wrought.  Even  if  improved 
machinery  can  be  introduced  on  a  large  scale,  and  the 
peons  gradually  educated  and  trained  in  industrial 
habits,  as  has  already  been  done  in  some  of  the  mining 
regions  and  in  the  Border  States,  the  land  tenure  sys- 
tem cannot  be  changed  without  a  political  and  social 
revolution;  nor  can  the  water  supply  be  increased  so 
as  to  be  equal  to  the  requirements  of  agricultural  in- 
dustries competing  with  those  of  the  United  States. 
Americans  can  well  afford  to  be  generous  in  negotiating 
commercial  treaties  with  Mexico. 

The  three  border  custom-houses  or  international 
bridges  have  taken  away  a  portion  of  the  trade  of  Vera 
Cruz,  but  have  not  drawn  upon  the  commerce  of  Pro- 
greso  and  the  Pacific  coast.  Their  gains  mark  substan- 
tially the  increase  of  trade  caused  by  the  construction 
of  railways   in  Mexico  during   the   last  fifteen  years. 


FUTURE  OP  MEXICO  331 

The  volume  of  foreign  trade  has  expanded  from 
852,000,000  in  1873  to  8101,000,000  in  1889.  It  is  a 
large  increase ;  but  it  is  not  what  it  would  have  been  if 
the  reciprocity  treaty  negotiated  by  General  Grant  had 
been  ratified  by  the  United  States  Congress.  That 
convention  was  made  without  solicitation  from  Mexico. 
The  United  States  Congress  appointed  a  commission, 
and  authorized  it  to  open  negotiations  for  securing 
closer  commercial  relations  with  Mexico.  A  treaty  was 
agreed  upon  and  promptly  ratified  by  Mexico.  The 
United  States  after  delaying  action  upon  it  for  several 
years  rejected  it.  Mexico  was  left  in  the  humiliating 
position  of  a  reluctant  guest,  who,  upon  being  imj)or- 
tuned  to  go  to  a  feast,  accepts  the  hospitality  with  little 
appetite,  and  then  finds  the  table  bare  and  the  door 
slammed  in  his  face.  It  was  not  difficult  for  English 
and  German  residents  to  convince  the  mercantile  and 
governing  classes,  that  the  powerful  nation  which  had 
dictated,  after  a  war  of  conquest,  the  humiliating  treaty 
of  Guadalupe-Hidalgo  was  bent  upon  maintaining  a 
selfish  and  unfriendly  policy. 

The  rejection  of  the  treaty  of  1883  was  a  gross  blunder 
on  the  part  of  the  United  States.  Veteran  whist  players 
are  apt  to  believe  that  the  cards  never  forgive  a  misplay. 
Certainly  it  was  neither  generous  nor  wise  to  repudiate 
an  equitable  commercial  agreement  which  would  have 
been  highly  beneficial  to  the  productive  interests  of  both 
countries,  and  to  do  it,  moreover,  in  such  a  way  as  to 
cause  resentment  and  intense  irritation,  since  Mexico 
was  brusquely  told  that  it  was  a  poor  country  whose 
trade  was  not  worth  having.  Recently  fluxing  ores 
have  been  practically  excluded  from  the  United  States 
by   a    treasury   ruling   and   the    Tariff    Act   of    1890. 


332  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

When  the  Grant-Romero  convention  was  negotiated 
the  exportation  of  these  ores  was  insignificant.  In  the 
course  of  a  few  years  the  valuation  of  these  exported 
ores  ran  up  to  $7,000,000.  Without  commercial  union 
American  capital  had  been  heavily  invested  in  Mexican 
mines,  an  advantageous  trade  had  sprung  up  on  each 
side  of  the  border,  and  ores  were  going  north  to  smelt- 
ing centres  and  live  stock  in  the  other  direction.  The 
exclusion  of  the  low-grade  ores  involved  retaliation  on 
the  part  of  Mexico.  The  duties  on  American  hogs  and 
cattle  were  heavily  increased  at  the  border.  This  was 
followed  by  similar  action  at  Washington  in  the  live- 
stock schedules  of  the  Tariff  Act  of  1890.  The  general 
effects  of  this  tariff  war  on  the  border  were  an  increase 
in  the  cost  of  beef  and  pork  in  Mexico,  the  establishment 
of  the  smelting  industry  on  a  large  scale  in  Monterey 
and  San  Luis  Potosi,  and  the  interruption  of  interna- 
tional trade  by  which  American  railways,  smelting 
works,  and  farms  had  been  greatly  benefited. 

While  this  policy  was  deeply  resented  by  intelligent 
Mexicans  at  the  outset,  as  an  indication  of  unfriendli- 
ness and  hostility,  it  was  not  long  before  they  were 
laughing  at  Americans  for  having  over-reached  them- 
selves. The  increased  duties  on  live  stock  added 
largely  to  the  Mexican  revenues,  and  this  naturally 
gratified  the  governing  classes ;  but  the  construction  of 
smelting  works  in  railway  centres  near  the  mining  dis- 
tricts, and  the  establishment  of  a  great  industry  with 
American  capital,  were  justly  considered  to  be  a  national 
gain.  The  view  which  was  generally  expressed  to  me 
by  the  treasury  officials  in  Mexico,  with  whom  I  talked, 
was  that  Americans  had  sought  to  injure  the  neighbor- 
ing Republic,  but  had  only  succeeded  in  hurting  them- 


FUTURE   OF   MEXICO  338 

selves.  When  I  reminded  them  of  the  removal  of  the 
duties  on  raw  fibre,  one  of  the  chief  exports  of  the  coun- 
try, they  explained  it  as  an  unintentional  act  of  friend- 
liness on  the  part  of  the  American  Congress.  This  was 
an  apt  illustration  of  the  folly  of  giving  away  the  privi- 
leges of  a  great  market.  In  the  Grant-Romero  treaty 
this  was  one  of  the  most  important  concessions  made  to 
Mexico.  When  it  was  flung  away  in  the  Tariff  Act 
of  1890,  without  any  attempt  to  obtain  any  compensat- 
ing advantages,  the  favor  was  not  appreciated.  Mexico 
was  not  grateful  for  the  free  market  for  fibre,  but  loudly 
complained  of  the  treasury  ruling  relating  to  low-grade 
ores.  The  long  free  list  including  coffee,  hides,  fibre, 
sugar,  rubber,  dye  woods,  high-grade  ores,  and  nearly 
every  other  important  export,  was  not  regarded  as  an 
indication  of  comity  and  good-will.  The  short  dutia- 
ble list  comprising  lead  ores,  oranges,  tobacco,  and 
wool  was  magnified  into  a  national  grievance.  There 
could  not  be  a  more  striking  illustration  of  the  neces- 
sity of  employing  treaty-makers  rather  than  tariff- 
makers  to  adjust  the  commercial  relations  of  the  two 
countries.  Let  a  tariff  be  enacted,  and  the  United 
States  is  not  credited  with  generosity  in  enlarging  the 
free  market  for  Mexican  produce,  but  is  only  charged 
with  hostility  in  excluding  low-grade  ores.  Let  a  bar- 
gain be  struck  in  a  reciprocity  convention,  and  there 
will  be  a  different  feeling.  Commercial  privileges 
which  are  purchased  with  compensating  favors  in  return 
will  be  appreciated,  and  the  two  countries  which  are 
linked  together  by  their  railway  systems  will  be  brought 
into  more  harmonious  relations. 

It  is  the  deliberate  judgment  of  all  intelligent  Ameri- 
cans in  Mexico,  that  the  United  States  can  afford  to 


334  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

deal  with  that  country  on  the  broadest  terms  in  reci- 
procity negotiations.  The  Aldrich  Amendment  to  the 
Tariff  Act  has  offered  only  a  narrow  margin  for  com- 
mercial union,  since  sugar  is  not  exported  from  Mexico, 
and  the  surplus  of  coffee  is  not  very  large  and  can  be 
sold  in  Europe.  If  raw  fibre  had  been  included  in  the 
reciprocity  amendment  the  margin  for  diplomatic  action 
would  have  been  greatly  increased.  The  true  policy  of 
the  United  States  is  to  obtain  what  compensations  it 
can  for  the  free  market  already  opened  for  Mexican 
exports,  and  in  a  new  treaty  to  enlarge  it  in  proportion 
to  the  willingness  of  the  Southern  Republic  to  make 
concessions  to  the  export  trade.  With  thousands  of 
Americans  swarming  across  the  border,  and  actively 
developing  the  resources  of  Mexico,  every  commercial 
concession  that  is  made  by  treaty  will  yield  large 
results  in  trade.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Diaz  Gov- 
ernment is  directly  interested  in  a  policy  which  will 
attract  foreign  capital,  develop  national  resources,  and 
promote  the  prosperity  of  the  railways  which  it  has 
heavily  subsidized.  In  1879  there  were  372  miles  of 
railway;  in  1891  there  were  5555  miles  in  operation 
and  1740  miles  under  construction.  For  thirty  years 
charters  were  granted  and  nothing  was  done.  Then 
American  capital  and  energy  were  employed  and  great 
results  were  accomplished.  In  the  course  of  a  few  years 
subsidies  were  authorized  to  the  extent  of  $200,000,000, 
and  when  it  became  necessary  to  suspend  them  all 
the  companies  were  financially  embarrassed.  With  the 
funding  of  obligations  in  long-term  bonds,  and  the 
resumption  of  subsidy  payments  on  those  railways 
which  were  practical  enterprises,  there  has  been  a  marked 
improvement   in   the   system.     The    Mexican   govern- 


FUTURE   OF  MEXICO  335 

ment  is  directly  interested  in  the  success  of  these  subsi- 
dized railways,  and  commercial  union  with  the  United 
States  will  alone  insure  their  prosperity. 

Mexican  prejudice  against  Americans  is  still  a 
strong  popular  feeling,  but  it  is  declining.  Some  of 
the  newspapers  take  advantage  of  every  petty  incident 
to  inflame  the  resentments  of  their  readers.  If  a  man 
be  run  over  and  .killed  on  the  railways,  a  ferocious 
tirade  will  appear  in  a  San  Luis  Potosi  journal  against 
the  management.  The  local  magnate,  the  jefe  politico, 
will  be  called  upon  to  imprison  the  engineer  and  the 
conductor,  and  to  stop  the  running  of  trains.  When- 
ever an  accident  occurs  there  are  clamors  from  the  press, 
and  sometimes  an  arbitrary  exercise  of  authority  by  the 
State  government.  Even  greater  irritation  is  shown 
when  some  fancied  slight  is  put  upon  Mexican  officials. 
There  are  journalists  and  officials  whose  stock  in  trade 
is  prejudice  against  Americans.  So  far  as  they  consider 
it  safe  to  criticise  the  Liberal  government  of  the  day, 
they  inveigh  against  the  concessions  made  to  American 
railways,  mining  companies,  and  merchants.  They 
delight  in  harassing  and  embarrassing  American  inter- 
ests. Narrow-minded  officials  are  quick  to  take  advan- 
tage of  every  opportunity  for  imprisoning  Americans 
for  debt  under  State  laws,  although  under  the  Federal 
statutes  this  is  an  illegal  process.  Their  political  cry 
is  " Mexico  for  the  Mexicans,"  and  there  are  reaction- 
ary and  conservative  classes  which  are  in  sympathy 
with  anti-American  agitation. 

Naturally  these  newspaper  raids  and  official  persecu- 
tions are  resented  by  Americans  of  high  spirit.  The 
fact  that  many  investments  have  not  been  highly  re- 
munerative, and  that  the  railway  corporations  have  had 


336  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

a  hard  struggle,  even  with  the  treasury  subsidies  in 
their  favor,  to  keep  the  earnings  on  a  level  with  the 
expenditures,  does  not  predispose  managers  and  super- 
intendents to  accept  affronts  with  meekness.  Their 
relations  with  the  jefe  politico  are  often  strained,  and 
when  they  pronounce  judgment  upon  the  Mexican  politi- 
cal system,  it  is  not  in  complimentary  terms.  Not  in- 
frequently during  my  journey  from  Acdmbaro  to  Aguas 
Calientes,  San  Luis  Potosi  and  the  Rio  Grande,  I  heard 
influential  Americans  deliberately  express  the  conviction 
that  the  downfall  of  Maximilian  was  a  grave  misfortune 
to  the  country,  since  it  deprived  the  people  of  a  strong 
and  stable  government.  This  was  a  vagary  as  extrava- 
gant as  any  of  the  heated  tirades  of  the  Mexican  press 
against  Americans. 

The  truth  lies  between  these  extremes  of  discontent 
with  existing  conditions  of  progress.  The  construction 
of  the  railways  and  the  investment  of  $300,000,000  of 
American  capital  in  Mexican  mines,  ranches,  and  enter- 
prises of  all  kinds,  have  created  a  strong  and  stable  gov- 
ernment and  opened  a  new  era  of  industrial  development. 
Value  has  been  imparted  both  to  the  agricultural  staples 
and  to  the  mineral  resources  by  rapid  transit  for  freight, 
and  improved  machinery.  Not  only  have  the  shipments 
of  ixtle  and  other  fibres  quadrupled  in  volume  since  the 
opening  of  the  trunk  railways,  but  all  kinds  of  farm 
produce  in  the  main  plateau  have  become  marketable. 
The  mines  have  largely  increased  in  value,  and  timber 
regions  in  the  south  which  had  not  been  explored  have 
been  opened.  One  of  the  most  beneficial  changes  is  that 
wrought  in  the  condition  of  labor,  especially  in  the 
northern  sections.  The  old  system  of  semi-servitude 
for  debt  is  disappearing  in  the  Border  States.     Work- 


FUTURE  OF   MEXICO  337 

men  are  paid  by  the  day  or  week  at  most  of  the  northern 
ranches  and  mines.  With  the  abolition  of  degrading 
methods  of  debt-slavery,  there  is  less  improvidence  and 
ignorance  among  working  people  near  the  border.  It 
is  an  indication  of  the  approaching  amelioration  of  the 
condition  of  the  Indian  population  throughout  Mexico. 
Light  is  slowly  dawning  in  a  benighted  land. 

No  American  can  return  to  the  Rio  Grande  from 
Mexico  without  being  impressed  with  the  results  of  the 
last  decade  of  railway  construction,  industrial  develop- 
ment, and  material  progress.  The  country  is  passing 
through  an  era  of  social  and  political  evolution.  The 
organization  of  an  effective  telegraph  and  railway  ser- 
vice has  promoted  the  supreme  interests  of  peace  and 
stable  government.  When  the  earliest  rumors  of  local 
discontent  and  politician  intrigue  are  flashed  to  the 
national  capital  there  are  facilities  for  transporting  a 
large  military  force  by  railway  to  remote  States.  The 
supremacy  of  the  federal  government  has  been  estab- 
lished. Insurrections  have  ceased.  There  has  been  a 
revival  of  national  pride  and  public  spirit.  President 
Diaz,  judged  by  rigid  standards,  is  a  military  dictator 
rather  than  a  constitutional  reformer ;  but  he  has  gov- 
erned Mexico  with  an  enlightened  mind,  as  well  as  with 
a  strong  arm.  Under  his  administration  there  have 
been  large  expenditures  for  schools  and  public  works,  a 
restoration  of  financial  credit,  with  a  marked  increase  in 
federal  income  from  $16,000,000  in  1873,  to  $32,000,000 
in  1889,  and  a  vast  expansion  of  mining  interests  and 
mercantile  business.  The  political  power  of  the  clergy 
has  been  rigorously  restrained,  education  has  been  secu- 
larized, and  brought  within  the  reach  of  an  impoverished 
population,  and  the  lives  of  citizens  and  foreigners  alike 
have  been  secured  by  adequate  safeguards. 


338  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

The  government  of  Mexico  is  oligarchical  and  mili- 
tary, rather  than  republican.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  a  popular  election.  There  are  no  public  meetings, 
the  press  is  not  at  liberty  to  discuss  national  questions 
without  restraint,  and  political  parties  do  not  exercise 
their  normal  functions  in  supporting  or  opposing  the 
Government  of  the  day.  There  is  no  registration  of 
voters,  the  ballot-boxes  are  controlled  by  those  in 
authority,  and  both  State  and  National  administra- 
tions are  conducted  by  military  men  with  an  army  of 
35,000  or  possibly  45,000  men  behind  them.  In  prac- 
tice it  is  military  government  under  the  guise  of  consti- 
tutional republicanism.  Few  citizens  take  any  interest 
in  elections  or  congressional  debates.  Public  opinion 
may  be  defined  with  a  fair  degree  of  accuracy  as  the 
policy  which  President  Diaz  considers  expedient  and 
necessary.  Anything  like  opposition  to  his  wishes 
is  stamped  out.  This  is  not  republican  government ; 
but  with  the  inertia  of  millions  of  .ignorant  and  fanati- 
cal Indian  peons  to  be  overcome,  it  is  probably  the  best 
administration  that  is  practicable  at  present.  When  a 
Mexican  Liberal  is  frank,  he  will  state  the  case  in  this 
way :  "  There  must  be  a  strong  military  government,  or 
there  will  be  anarchy;  the  administration  of  the  day 
must  prevent  the  organization  of  a  successful  opposi- 
tion party  and  perpetuate  its  own  power,  for  otherwise 
a  degraded  population,  under  the  control  of  the  clergy, 
would  inevitably  bring  on  a  revolution,  if  it  were 
allowed  to  participate  in  public  discussions." 

Theoretically,  the  existing  government  must  be  con- 
demned as  contrary  to  the  genius  of  republican  institu- 
tions ;  but  practically  it  is  not  without  its  merits  and 
compensations.      Civil  war  is  at  an  end.      There   are 


FUTURE  OF  MEXICO  339 

few  revolutionary  intrigues  and  cabals.  Brigandage 
and  robbery  have  been  suppressed,  or  at  least  confined 
to  remote  and  inaccessible  sections  of  the  country. 
Military  guards  have  been  suspended  on  nearly  all  the 
railways ;  treasure  caravans  and  paymasters  in  the  min- 
ing regions  no  longer  require  protection ;  and  haciendas 
have  ceased  to  be  fortresses  of  defence  against  maraud- 
ers. National  credit  has  steadily  improved,  and  liberal 
grants  are  made  for  public  works  and  free  schools. 
Above  all  there  is  no  departure  from  that  rigorous  sys- 
tem of  nationalizing  the  Church,  and  of  emancipating 
the  people  from  ecclesiastical  domination  which  was 
resolutely  introduced  by  Juarez,  one  of  the  greatest  of 
modern  Mexicans.  American  residents  who  lament  the 
downfall  of  Maximilian  as  a  national  misfortune  have 
as  little  real  knowledge  of  the  currents  of  progress  as 
seagulls  have  of  the  physical  tendencies  of  the  Gulf 
Stream.  Maximilian  represented  ecclesiastical  reaction 
and  national  stagnation. 

Under  Spanish  domination  there  was  neither  higher 
nor  lower  education  in  Mexico  outside  ecclesiastical 
schools,  and  in  these  very  little  that  was  of  practi- 
cal utility  was  allowed  to  be  taught.  During  the  last 
twenty  years  great  progress  has  been  made  in  popular 
education.  Free  schools  have  been  opened  in  every 
town  of  any  importance,  and  these  have  been  released 
from  ecclesiastical  control.  The  Church,  at  the  same 
time,  has  displayed  marked  energy  in  enlarging  its  edu- 
cational facilities.  There  are  probably  475,000  pupils  in 
the  primary  schools  supported  by  the  Nation,  States,  and 
municipalities ;  and  there  are,  perhaps,  240,000  more  in 
church  and  charity  schools.  With  a  total  population  of 
12,000,000  this  is  far  from  being  a  satisfactory  exhibit; 


340  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

but  it  marks  a  great  advance  upon  the  condition  of 
illiteracy  prevailing  ten  years  ago.  Tlie  school  appro- 
priations aggregate  $2,000,000  a  year,  and  are  steadily 
increasing.  The  administration  of  President  Diaz  has 
been  identified  with  this  educational  policy.  The  coun- 
try is  not  stagnating  as  it  was  for  twenty  years  after 
the  war  with  the  United  States.  Slowly  and  labori- 
ously the  mixed  races  in  the  towns  and  villages  will  be 
taught  to  read  and  to  think  for  themselves.  Then  the 
pure  Indian  stock  will  be  rescued  from  its  appalling 
ignorance.  It  is  in  the  direction  of  popular  education 
that  progress  unerringly  lies  in  Mexico  no  less  than  in 
Brazil.  Juarez  and  Diaz  have  created  a  new  order  of  in- 
tellectual independence.  In  subordinating  the  Church 
to  the  State,  and  in  restoring  to  the  nation  resources  of 
wealth  which  were  unproductive,  they  have  armed  the 
clergy  with  religious  influence,  and  vastly  increased  its 
working  power.  Even  with  two-thirds  of  its  useless 
and  antiquated  buildings  secularized  or  abandoned, 
and  with  estates  and  properties  valued  as  high  as 
$300,000,000  confiscated,  the  Church  to-day  in  Mexico 
is  vitalized  with  an  energy  that  was  unknown  twenty- 
five  years  ago.  Liberal  Government  has  not  paralyzed 
it.     Juarez  and  Diaz  have  reinvigorated  it. 


XVII 
THE   MOSQUITO   RESERVATION 

A    REGION    OF    ANOMALIES — MORAVIAN    MISSIONS    IN    BLUE- 
FIELDS THE  MOSQUITO  CROWN  CAPTURED    BY  A  YANKEE 

NEGRO    RULE    AND    NICARAGUAN    AMBITION VOYAGE 

WITH    A    CARIB    PILOT THE    CORAL    CAYS    AND    MONKEY 

POINT A    DEAD    CALM    IN    THE    CARIBBEAN A  DIET   OF 

YOUNG   COCOANUTS 

The  Mosquito  Reservation  is  a  region  of  anomalies. 
Bluefields  lies  on  the  twelfth  parallel  from  the  equator, 
yet  is  delightfully  cool  and  has  an  equable  and  invig- 
orating climate.  It  is  on  the  track  of  one  of  the  famous 
voyages  of  Columbus,  and  consequently  is  one  of  the 
oldest  sections  of  Spanish  America ;  but  English  is  al- 
most the  only  language  spoken,  there  is  not  a  Catholic 
church  in  the  town,  and  there  are  no  adobe  houses  with 
flat  roofs  and  enclosed  gardens.  It  is  the  centre  of  an 
Indian  reservation;  but  blacks  are  the  ruling  class,  and 
administer  laws  which  they  themselves  have  made.  It 
is  in  the  heart  of  Spanish  America,  yet  it  is  under  the 
religious  influence  of  the  Moravian  Church,  and  is  gov- 
erned by  the  bluest  of  Sunday  laws.  A  series  of  sur- 
prises awaits  the  traveller  arriving  at  Bluefields.  It  is 
a  miniature  Kingston,  with  a  background  of  trackless 
forest,  tenanted  by  intemperate  Indian  wards.  There 
is  a  straggling  line  of  frame  sheds  on  stilts  seven  miles 
from  a  high  bluff  at  the  entrance  of   a  long,  shallow 

341 


342  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

lagoon.  There  are  pitched  roofs,  some  of  them  thatched 
and  others  of  shingles  and  iron ;  and  there  are  low 
piazzas  and  unregenerate  pioneer  house-fronts  flanking 
the  stony  lane  where  negro  saints  tramp  along  singing 
"  Jordan  am  a  hard  road  to  trabble."  From  the  knoll 
where  the  Moravian  buildings  are  clustered  this  valley 
winds  along  the  shore  to  picturesque  heights  with 
clumps  of  cocoanut-trees ;  and  midway  there  is  another 
lane  leading  to  the  court-house  and  jail  and  to  the  edge 
of  the  forest.  Along  these  neglected  roads  there  are 
negro  cabins  and  Yankee  stores,  but  not  a  trace  of 
Spanish  architecture  is  to  be  seen.  There  is  an  Indian 
chief  who  is  the  nominal  head  of  the  government,  but 
the  negro  rules,  collects  the  taxes,  enforces  law,  sits  in 
judgment  when  white  sinners  offend,  and  calls  the  In- 
dian to  repentance. 

Something  like  a  series  of  anomalies  was  needed  in 
order  to  restore  my  interest  in  Spanish  America  when  I 
arrived  at  Bluefields.  From  the  Mexican  border  I 
went  to  New  Orleans  whence  I  was  doomed  to  have  a 
tedious  and  uncomfortable  voyage  on  a  fruiting  steamer 
bound  for  the  Caribbean.  After  leaving  the  jetties,  the 
Grussie  headed  for  Cape  San  Antonio,  and  passing  the 
light  on  the  third  evening,  encountered  high  seas  and 
rolled  heavily.  In  the  forenoon  there  was  a  loud  swish 
of  steam  and  the  engine  stopped.  A  crack  seven  feet 
long  had  opened  in  the  boiler.  For  twenty-four  hours 
the  ship  wallowed  in  the  trough  of  the  sea,  with  fires 
extinguished,  without  steerageway,  and  at  the  mercy 
of  a  high  wind  and  a  heavy  swell.  During  the  long 
watches  of  a  sleepless  night  I  listened  to  the  shrill  out- 
cries of  a  Spanish  woman,  whenever  there  was  a  deep 
larch  seaward,  and  to  the  ceaseless  cannonade  of  chairs 


THE  MOSQUITO   RESERVATION  343 

and  sofas  bowling  against  the  cabin  doors.  When  the 
engineers  had  completed  the  rej^airs  steam  could  only 
be  carried  at  low  pressure,  and  the  vessel  reached  the 
bluff  at  Bluefields  two  days  behind  time.  The  first 
announcement  from  the  customs  boat  was  that  there 
would  be  no  steam  communication  with  Greytown  for 
fourteen  days.  As  a  day  rather  than  a  fortnight  had 
been  reserved  for  the  port,  this  was  a  most  depressing 
welcome.  I  wag  back  in  Spanish  America  where  the 
chief  resource  was  time. 

The  bluff  was  seven  miles  from  the  town.  To  the 
north  was  Pearl  Lagoon,  where  Robert  Clarence,  chief 
of  all  the  Mosquitos,  black  and  brown,  dwelt  with  his 
retinue  of  tippling  followers.  The  Bluefields  River 
emptied  into  a  bay  at  the  northern  edge  of  the  town,  a 
typical  tropical  stream  flowing  through  a  trackless  for- 
est. Further  north  was  Great  River,  with  its  exhausted 
rubber  trees  and  mahogany  camps.  Higher  still  were 
gold  streams,  where  a  few  pioneers  in  placer  mining 
were  industriously  washing  sand  in  the  pan,  and  in  the 
long  watches  of  the  tropical  night  dreaming  uneasily  of 
a  new  California.  The  Mosquito  coast  is  a  narrow 
border  of  coral  reef  and  sand,  deeply  indented  with  bays 
where  the  forest  rivers  pour  into  the  Caribbean  Sea  their 
waters,  swollen  into  torrents  during  the  rainy  season. 
In  huddles  of  bamboo  huts,  on  the  shores  of  the  lagoons, 
are  a  few  thousands  of  degenerate  Indians.  It  is  a  low- 
lying  level  coast,  with  a  white  line  of  curling  surf  at  its 
base,  and  a  background  of  wilderness  of  rich  luxuriance 
and  unchanging  repose. 

The  run  across  the  lagoon  was  made  in  silence  and 
with  a  dismal  feeling  of  disappointment ;  but  when  the 
town  was  reached  there  was  a  reaction.     An  American 


844  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

landlord  provided  a  palatable  dinner,  and  opened  for  the 
accommodation  of  his  guests  rooms  which  were  clean 
and  cool.  English  and  Americans  were  at  hand  to  pilot 
the  visitors  in  their  first  stroll  through  the  town.  Rough 
and  unpretentious  as  the  Mosquito  capital  was,  it  had  a 
picturesque  charm  of  its  own  and  a  setting  of  tropical 
vegetation  of  real  beauty.  A  foreign  colony  of  mer- 
chants engaged  in  the  banana,  mahogany,  and  rubber 
trades  was  revealed  in  a  most  hospitable  mood. 

The  mission  bell  tolled  the  hour  for  evening  service, 
for  it  was  Sunday,  and  a  motley  congregation  of  ne- 
groes, of  man}^  shades  of  color,  assembled  in  an  unpre- 
tentious church,  men  and  boys  sitting  on  benches  to  the 
right  of  the  preacher's  desk,  and  women  and  girls  to 
the  left.  To  one  who  had  been  tramping  for  months 
through  Latin  cathedrals  and  Spanish  churches,  and 
witnessing  the  pomp  and  glory  of  religious  processions 
and  ceremonials,  this  simple  and  orderly  Protestant  ser- 
vice was  an  almost  startling  surprise.  The  preacher 
spoke  with  a  marked  German  accent,  but  his  sermon 
was  homely,  plain,  and  practical.  There  were  grotesque 
glimpses  of  negro  character,  but  there  was  more  in  the 
mission  service  to  command  respect  than  to  excite  ridi- 
cule. All  forms  of  Sunday  amusement  are  prohibited 
in  Bluefields.  There  is  no  cockpit ;  there  are  no  gam- 
bling houses  ;  saloons  are  closed,  and  virtuous  inhabi- 
tants are  expected  to  be  in  their  beds  not  long  after 
curfew.  Bluefields  under  negro  rule  assumes  to  be  a 
strictly  moral  town. 

The  Moravian  missions  are  the  only  religious  stations 
in  a  rich  tract  of  territory,  200  by  40  miles  in  area.  Prot- 
estantism is  supreme  in  the  Reservation.  When  a  new 
chief  is  elected  there  is  a  service  corresponding  roughly 


THE   MOSQUITO   RESERVATION  345 

to  a  coronation.  Robert  Clarence,  a  full-blooded  Mos- 
quito Indian,  was  elevated  to  the  executive  office  on 
January  29,  1891.  The  head  men  of  the  tribe  were 
numbered  in  the  supreme  court  by  vice-President  Pat- 
terson, and  their  ballots  were  unanimously  cast  for  this 
swarthy  young  prince  of  the  royal  line.  A  procession 
was  formed,  and  the  new  chief  was  conducted  in  state 
to  the  Moravian  chapel,  where  the  Reverend  Brother 
Erdemann  read  passages  from  the  Old  Testament,  relat- 
ing to  Saul  and  Solomon,  prayed  fervently  for  the  lad, 
and  preached  a  long  sermon  in  the  Mosquito  tongue. 
The  oath  of  office  was  administered,  a  watch  and  chain 
were  presented  to  him  by  the  Nicaraguan  commission- 
ers, there  was  a  big  feast,  and  rockets  were  set  off  in 
the  evening.  The  next  day  the  chief  was  bundled  off 
to  Pearl  Lagoon,  and  J.  W.  Cuthbert,  a  full-blooded 
negro,  was  invested  with  full  political  power  as  Attor- 
ney-General and  executive  adviser.  As  the  mortality 
among  the  chiefs  is  very  high,  owing  either  to  intemper- 
ance or  assassination  by  poisoning,  these  elections  are 
of  frequent  occurrence.  It  is  sometimes  necessary  to 
baptize  the  chief  on  election  day ;  but  he  is  invariably  a 
member  of  the  Moravian  Church,  and  is  installed  at  the 
mission  chapel. 

The  sceptre  of  the  Mosquito  kings  has  been  captured 
by  a  Yankee,  and  smuggled  out  of  Bluefields  in  a  hat- 
box.  Mr.  Spellman,  representing  a  Boston  firm  in  the 
mahogany  trade,  invited  me  to  his  house,  after  the  Sun- 
day evening  service,  and  displayed  the  crown.  As  it 
was  midnight,  and  he  was  to  sail  for  Boston  in  the 
morning,  I  may  claim  the  honor  of  being  the  last  wit- 
ness of  the  departing  glory  of  royalty  on  the  Mosquito 
coast.     It  was  a  shabby  crown  of  little  intrinsic  value. 


346  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

It  was  a  band  of  tarnished  silver,  with  a  red  plush  vel- 
vet cap,  and  a  lining  of  soiled  chamois  skin.  The  silver 
was  beaten  out  into  twelve  conventional  oak  leaves, 
with  a  coronet  clasp  in  front.  Underneath  this  line  of 
clumsy  ornament,  which  suggested  in  a  vague  way  that, 
in  the  early  days  of  Mosquito  royalty,  British  clubs  were 
trumps,  there  were  two  beaded  lines,  with  spaces  in  the 
circlet  for  alternating  diamonds  and  seals  of  tortoise 
shell.  The  jewels  had  been  removed,  and  probably 
pawned,  in  the  vicissitudes  of  roj^alty.  Each  empty 
space  represented  demijohns  of  whiskey  consumed  by 
tippling  kings.  Despoiled  of  its  jewels,  the  crown  was 
left  for  safe  keeping  with  a  queen  mother,  and  she  sold 
it  to  a  trader.  When  the  lumber  camps  were  opened 
in  the  mahogany  district,  Mr.  Spellman  procured  it,  and 
carried  it  north,  without  the  knowledge  of  the  Indians. 
The  crown  was  originally  bestowed,  through  British 
intrigue,  at  Jamaica.  The  Mosquito  coast,  while  dis- 
covered by  Columbus,  was  not  occupied  by  the  Span- 
iards, as  there  were  no  indications  of  gold,  and  as  the 
natives  were  degraded  and  impoverished.  During  the 
seventeenth  century  buccaneers  took  advantage  of  its 
sheltered  lagoons.  Bluefields  received  its  name,  accord- 
ing to  local  tradition,  from  Bleevelt,  a  fine  old  Dutch 
corsair,  whose  hiding-place  was  behind  the  bluff.  The 
Indians,  named  by  the  Spaniards,  Moscos,  came  in  time 
to  be  known  as  Mosquitos.  Either  from  the  wreck  of  a 
slave-ship,  or  from  the  escape  of  runaway  negroes  from 
Jamaica  and  the  Spanish  settlements,  a  hybrid  race  of 
Indian-African  breed  sprang  up  and  took  possession 
of  the  forest  coast.  British  traders  induced  a  party 
of  chiefs  to  go  to  Jamaica,  and  apply  to  the  authorities 
there  for  protection.     One  of  them  was  made  a  king, 


THE  MOSQUITO   RESERVATION  347 

and  returned  with  a  crown.  The  British  flag  was  sub- 
sequently raised  on  the  coast,  but  the  Spanish  Govern- 
ment resented  the  invasion.  By  treaties,  negotiated  in 
1783  and  1786,  England  abandoned  all  claims  to  the 
coast,  but  retained  the  privilege  of  cutting  logwood  in 
Belize.  When  the  Central  American  States  revolted 
against  Spain,  the  British  protectorate  over  the  Mos- 
quito coast  was  revived.  The  farce  of  coronation  was 
repeated  several  times  at  Belize,  the  sovereigns  invari- 
ably vindicating  their  title  to  royalty  by  remaining  as 
drunk  as  princes  during  their  short  reigns.  After  the 
negotiation  of  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty,  and  the  nom- 
inal abandonment  of  the  British  protectorate,  the  kings 
were  known  as  chiefs,  but  were  generally  chosen  from 
the  royal  family.  The  silver  crown  ceased  to  be  a 
sceptre  of  royal  prerogative  guaranteed  by  England. 
It  was  packed  away  with  the  old  clothes  of  the  royal 
family,  and  finally  pawned,  and  surrendered  to  a  Yankee 
trader. 

The  sceptre  has  passed  away,  but  political  power  re- 
mains in  the  hands  of  the  blacks  and  the  Moravian  mis- 
sionaries. There  are  several  thousands  of  Indians  of 
the  Rama,  Wulva,  and  Smu  tribes  clustered  in  small 
communities  on  the  banks  of  the  rivers  and  the  shores 
of  the  lagoons.  The  independence  of  these  tribes  was 
guaranteed  by  a  treaty  negotiated  in  1860  between 
Great  Britain  and  Nicaragua ;  but  practically  home  rule 
involves  negro  domination.  There  is  an  Indian  chief 
at  the  head  of  the  territorial  government,  but  all  the 
officials  and  magistrates  are  blacks.  The  Reservation 
makes  its  own  laws,  collects  its  own  customs  revenue, 
and  is  virtually  independent  of  Nicaragua.  There  is  a 
low  tariff,  and  there  is  also  an  export  duty  on  rubber ; 


348  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

and  while  the  seaboard  is  nominally  under  the  dominion 
of  the  Spanish  Republic,  it  is  practically  a  self-legislat- 
ing, self-governing,  and  English-speaking  community. 
The  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty,  supplemented  by  the  con- 
vention w^ith  Nicaragua,  has  had  the  singular  effect  of 
establishing  the  Moravian  mis^ons  as  a  State  Church 
and  negro  rule  as  the  political  order. 

Nicaragua  covets  this  territory  which  is  hers  only  in 
name.  The  Bluefields  River  is  rapidly  becoming  the 
centre  of  a  most  profitable  banana  trade,  employing 
lines  of  steamers  from  New  Orleans,  Galveston,  Savan- 
nah, New  York,  and  Boston.  Great  River  leads  into 
one  of  the  finest  mahogany  belts  in  Central  America. 
About  2,750,000  feet  of  this  lumber  were  sent  to  Bos- 
ton in  1890  for  the  construction  of  Pullman  cars.  The 
rubber  trees,  while  injured  by  rough  treatment,  are  an 
important  source  of  wealth.  The  streams  beyond  Great 
River  are  reputed  to  have  gold  in  their  beds.  The 
Mosquito  coast  is  a  valuable  one,  and  Nicaragua  aspires 
to  drive  out  the  negroes  and  to  establish  her  customs 
line  from  Greytown,  which  by  treaty  is  now  a  free  port, 
to  Cape  Gracias.  There  are  signs  of  an  impending  con- 
flict for  the  possession  of  the  Reservation.  Recently 
Corn  Island  has  been  occupied,  and  Rama  on  the  Blue- 
fields  River  converted  into  a  Nicaraguan  garrison,  al- 
though both  are  technically  within  the  limits  of  the 
Reservation.  These  were  overt  acts  which  excited  ap- 
prehension among  the  negroes,  and  the  presence  of 
swaggering  Nicaraguan  officers  at  Rama  has  kept  Blue- 
fields  in  a  constant  state  of  panic. 

There  would  be  annexation  at  a  moment's  notice  if 
the  Treaty  of  Managua  did  not  constitute  Great  Britain 
the  guardian  of  the  rights  of  the  Indians  and  their  black 


THE  MOSQUITO   EESERVATION  349 

masters.  It  is  only  fear  of  complications  with  England 
that  prevents  an  invasion  of  the  Reservation  from  Rama. 
So  one  chief  after  another  is  baptized,  installed,  and 
buried,  and  the  signs  of  an  irrepressible  race  conflict 
for  the  control  of  the  Reservation  are  multiplied.  The 
Spanish  planters  on  the  river  will  not  be  satisfied  until 
Bluefields  is  wrested  from  the  present  conditions  of 
negro  supremacy  and  Moravian  influence.  Every  black 
in  the  Reservation  when  he  sees  a  Nicaraguan  colonel 
sauntering  along  the  roadway  involuntarily  whispers, 
"  I  am  a  British  subject  and  claim  protection."  These 
are  not  the  conditions  for  which  Mr.  Clayton  bargained 
when  he  was  entrapped  into  that  wretched  diplomatic 
travesty,  the  Canal  Convention  of  1850. 

The  prospect  of  an  enforced  delay  of  fifteen  days  in 
a  town  on  the  edge  of  the  great  Central  American  forest 
was  so  appalling,  that  I  entered  into  protracted  negotia- 
tions with  the  negro  postmaster  for  chartering  a  small 
sail  boat  with  a  Carib  crew  to  take  me  to  Greytown. 
Four  mornings  in  succession  the  postmaster  agreed  to 
furnish  the  boat,  if  the  pilot  would  consent  to  make  the 
run,  and  every  evening  he  reported  that  the  sea  was 
very  rough,  and  that  the  Caribs  were  afraid  to  venture 
out.  Convinced  that  the  Caribs  preferred  to  spend  the 
evenings  in  furtive  dalliance  with  the  dusky  maids  of 
Bluefields,  and  were  exaggerating  the  perils  of  the 
treacherous  sea  that  bore  their  name,  I  secured  from  an 
energetic  Canadian  in  the  banana  trade  the  promise  of 
another  boat  and  crew.  The  start  was  to  be  made 
at  five  in  the  morning.  At  eight  the  boat  was  at  the 
wharf  and  duly  provisioned  and  freighted  with  baggage. 
It  proved  to  be  the  postmaster's  boat  after  all,  the  Carib 
pilot  having  finally  consented  under  stress  of  competi- 


350  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

tion  to  take  a  more  hopeful  view  of  sea  and  weather. 
Professor  Bailey  and  I  promptly  embarked;  but  the 
skipper  and  crew  disappeared  to  take  leave  of  their 
swarthy  friends,  and  it  was  ten  o'clock  before  they 
rejoined  the  craft.  Then  there  was  another  detention, 
the  postmaster  having  decided  to  put  us  in  charge  of 
the  mail  for  Greytown.  The  Health  Officer  inspected 
the  passengers,  and  the  boat  was  cleared  with  due 
formalities.  The  Caribs  hoisted  the  mainsail  and  let 
loose  the  jib,  and  the  little  craft  crawled  away  from  the 
wharf  with  barely  a  breath  of  wind.  Even  with  five 
hours  of  unnecessary  delay  at  the  pier  and  with  the 
certainty  of  being  becalmed  in  the  lagoon  for  two  hours, 
there  was  an  exhilarating  sense  of  triumph  in  ha\dng 
overcome,  after  a  laborious  struggle,  the  inertia  of 
Nicaraguan  existence. 

The  breeze  freshened  as  the  boat  drew  near  the  bluff, 
and  the  Carib  pilot,  in  order  to  give  his  passengers  an 
exhibition  of  his  skill  as  a  navigator,  raced  with  a 
schooner  heading  out  to  sea.  His  craft  sailed  so  close 
to  the  wind  that  he  gained  rapidly  upon  his  clumsy 
rival,  soon  passed  her,  and  left  her  a  mile  behind.  No 
martinet  of  the  quarter-deck  could  enforce  sterner 
discipline  than  this  good-natured  Carib,  with  weather- 
beaten  face,  and  a  mouth  like  a  hole  in  a  blackened 
firepot.  His  orders  were  issued  with  as  much  precision 
and  formality  as  though  he  were  captain  of  a  European 
liner  instead  of  skipper  of  a  skiff  with  two  hands  under 
him.  A  landing  was  made  at  the  bluff  with  caution 
and  deliberation,  the  two  lithe  sailors  being  kept  well 
in  hand  and  actively  employed.  Freight  for  Greytown 
was  taken  on  board,  for  although  the  passengers  had 
chartered  the  boat,  the  Caribs  were  alive  to  the  chance 


THE  MOSQUITO   RESEKVATION  351 

of  earning  a  few  dollars  on  their  own  account.  This 
involved  protracted  conferences  on  shore,  but  at  last 
the  little  craft  headed  for  the  sea.  Bluefields  passed 
out  of  sight.  The  swirl  of  the  breakers  was  upon  us. 
The  Caribbean  which  I  had  seen  only  a  week  before 
dangerously  high,  when  sailing  in  a  disabled  and  un- 
manageable steamer,  was  now  pulsating  with  the  faintest 
breath  of  life.  The  breeze  was  fresh  and  strong,  the 
canvas  was  filled,  and  the  boat  bowled  along  right 
merrily.  The  old  pilot  whistled  softly  for  continuance 
of  the  wind,  and  headed  the  boat  for  Monkey  Point 
thirty  miles  away. 

Sweetest  of  all  sounds  to  him  who  loves  the  sea  is 
the  swirl  of  the  waves  under  the  keel  of  a  sail-boat. 
There  is  no  creaking  rumble  of  machinery,  nor  the 
ceaseless  clank  of  steering  chains,  nor  the  loud  splash 
of  propeller  blades,  but  only  the  measured  dip  and 
rebound  of  the  boat  as  it  leaps  from  surge  to  surge.  To 
hear  the  deep  undertones  of  the  ocean  one  must  be 
close  to  the  water,  and  not  high  above  it  on  a  promenade 
deck,  where  there  is  a  clatter  of  human  voices.  The 
long  dark  swells,  crested  with  steel-gray,  have  a  music  of 
their  own,  but  the  ear  must  be  near  the  heaving  breast 
of  the  sea  or  it  will  not  be  heard.  Nature's  most  deli- 
cate effects  of  light  and  shade  are  to  be  seen  in  the 
tropical  seas,  but  not  from  the  deck  of  a  puffing  cinder- 
mill  that  clouds  the  air  with  oily  smoke.  Under  the 
intense  light  of  the  midday  sun  a  changing  field  of 
azure,  green,  and  purple  flashed  its  latent  fires  like  an 
opal,  only  to  grow  pale  with  the  deep-shadowed  slopes 
of  the  breaking  swells.  It  was  a  lonely  corner  of  the 
sea ;  not  a  single  sail  was  seen  in  the  run  to  Greytown ; 
but    the    translucent   waters   swarmed   with    countless 


352.  TROPICAL   AlVIERICA 

forms  of  life.  Columbus,  when  he  sailed  the  Caribbean 
Sea,  reported  that  tropical  fish  rivalled  the  plumage  of 
the  forest  birds  in  color.  Under  the  lea  of  the  coral 
islands,  where  the  depths  were  shallowest,  there  was  a 
carnival  of  gold  lace,  silver  sheen,  and  flaming  scarlet ; 
and  in  the  broader,  unprotected  expanse  beyond  there 
was  a  flashing  pantomime  of  flying  fish.  A  fleet  of 
Portuguese  men-of-war,  with  their  tiny  sails  of  red  and 
orange,  accompanied  us  down  the  coast,  the  more 
venturesome  steering  close  in  and  fairly  striking  the 
gunwale  of  the  boat.  Swarms  of  low  flying  birds  were 
in  the  air,  and  now  and  then  a  white-winged  petrel 
stood  on  the  surface  of  the  waves. 

With  the  wind  constantly  freshening,  and  with  the 
current  sweeping  steadily  down  the  coast,  the  high  bluff 
at  the  entrance  to  the  Bluefields  lagoon  was  veiled  by 
wreaths  of  gray  mist.  One  island  after  another  was 
passed,  each  a  fairy-like  glade  of  verdure,  with  surf  beat- 
ing high  upon  a  white  beach,  and  palms  which  had  been 
bent  and  twisted  by  hurricanes,  rooted  in  the  coral  dust. 
Seen  many  miles  away,  as  emerald  specks  against  a 
bright  horizon,  they  were  approached  hour  by  hour,  until 
their  loveliness  was  fully  revealed,  and  then  they  were 
watched  with  lingering  regret  as  they  dropped  out  of 
sight  in  the  northern  reaches  of  the  sea.  In  the  south. 
Monkey  Point  had  been  looming  up  during  the  long, 
tranquil  afternoon.  Our  Carib  pilot  had  promised  to 
take  us,  if  the  wind  should  hold  out,  into  a  snug  harbor 
there  at  nightfall,  where  we  could  sleep  on  the  shore  in 
a  cabin  unless  we  preferred  the  open  boat  under  the 
starlit  sky.  Already  the  dark  lines  on  the  face  of  this 
heavily  wooded  headland  had  deepened  into  ravines ; 
two  tiny  islands  had  been  detached  from  its  outermost 


THE  MOSQUITO   RESERVATION  353 

edge,  and  the  fringe  of  surf  had  been  rounded  out  into 
a  curving,  ragged  beach.  Another  hour  passed  as  our 
boat  drew  up  slowly  to  the  rocky  cape,  and  the  loud 
calls  of  macaws  and  shrill-voiced  parrots,  green  and 
yellow,  were  heard  among  the  high  palms.  Beyond  the 
point  another  headland  was  descried  close  at  hand  with 
two  cays  anchored  off  it.  Between  the  capes  there  was 
a  reach  of  still  water.  The  promised  anchorage  had 
been  reached  before  the  sun  was  down.  A  few  Carib 
huts  were  concealed  by  the  thicket  on  shore  —  almost 
the  only  human  habitations  on  the  coast  between  Blue- 
fields  and  Greytown. 

It  was  time  for  a  conference  with  the  Carib  pilot. 
Choice  was  to  be  made  between  a  night's  lodging  on  the 
floor  of  one  of  the  native  huts  and  the  bare  hospitality 
of  the  boat,  with  a  steamer  trunk  for  a  mattress  and  a 
travelling-bag  for  a  pillow.  Unaccustomed  as  these 
children  of  the  forest  were  to  glimpses  of  Yankees,  and 
especially  a  Western  professor  in  his  war  paint,  they 
might  be  inclined  to  wonder  how  we  would  taste, 
whether  the  big  man  would  be  tough,  or  the  little  man 
tender,  if,  reverting  to  the  customs  of  their  ancestors  of 
the  age  of  Columbus,  they  were  to  roast  us  to  a  turn 
over  a  slow  fire.  It  was  not  well  to  stimulate  aboriginal 
reminiscence.  We  decided  to  sleep  in  the  boat,  blan- 
keted in  our  overcoats,  and  secure  against  scorpions  and 
fleas.  But  cocoanuts  fresh  from  the  trees  were  indis- 
pensable. Under  the  fierce  sun,  ham  sandwiches  had 
dissolved  with  fervent  heat,  the  eggs  had  addled,  and 
the  beer  had  lost  its  sweetness  and  life.  We  were 
hungry,  and  could  not  face  the  disintegration  of  the 
lunch-hamper.  Young  cocoanuts  would  keep  us  alive 
until  we  reached  Greytown. 


354  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

The  Caribs  leave  us  at  anchor  and  put  out  for  the 
shore  in  a  small  boat,  while  we  watch  the  parrots  among 
the  tree-tops  of  Monkey  Point.  The  tropical  forest, 
which  stretches  across  Nicaragua  to  the  coffee  tract  of 
the  West  Coast,  borders  upon  the  sea.  The  trees  are  not 
large,  for  they  stand  too  close  together  to  allow  breath- 
ing space  for  growth,  but  their  tufted  tops  are  luxuri- 
ant in  foliage.  Underneath  is  a  maze  fcf  vine-tracery. 
Every  trunk  is  covered  with  parasitic  growths  and 
hidden  from  view.  Orchids  are  in  bloom  twenty  feet 
in  air,  and  broad-leaved  underbrush  and  tangled  vines 
are  matted  together  in  an  impenetrable  jungle.  The 
forest  may  be  rich  in  mahogany,  rosewood,  rubber,  and 
dye-woods;  but  its  secret  recesses  are  known  only  to  the 
screaming  macaws,  the  chattering  monkeys,  and  the 
stealthy  tigers.  Feathery  palms  and  heavily  buttressed 
trees  are  on  the  high  crest  of  the  wild  woodland  of 
Monkey  Point,  but  there  is  no  trail  by  which  they  can 
be  reached  and  a  view  obtained  of  the  sombre  reaches  of 
the  inland  forest.  The  Caribs  on  the  shore  never  ven- 
ture far  into  that  broad  expanse  of  untrodden  woods. 
They  find  it  easier  to  shake  down  the  cocoanuts  from 
the  palms  lining  the  shore,  and  to  fish  in  their  canoes, 
than  to  cut  trails  with  the  machete  in  the  forest.  One 
of  them  follows  our  Caribs  as  they  return  to  us  with  a 
boat-load  of  cocoanuts,  our  meat  and  drink  during  the 
remainder  of  the  voyage. 

The  sun  has  gone  down,  and  the  stars  are  setting  their 
sentinel  lines  as  we  raise  the  anchor  and  head  southward. 
The  glory  of  a  tropical  sunset  is  evanescent,  like  the 
beauty  of  Southern  women.  The  crimson  streamers, 
the  orange  and  lemon  bands  of  color,  the  purple  haze 
and  the  scarlet  fires  centring  about  the  vanishing  orb. 


THE  MOSQUITO   RESERVATION  355 

quickly  fade  into  gray,  and  night  rolls  down  sud- 
denly like  a  black  curtain  dropped  by  a  scene-shifter, 
to  the  signal  of  a  sunset  gun.  With  the  sun  goes  the 
breeze.  There  is  not  air  enough  to  fill  the  sails,  which 
are  flapping  from  side  to  side  as  the  boat  lurches  in  a 
beam  sea.  As  the  night  deepens,  the  stars  enable  us  to 
see  the  forest-clad  shores  slowly  dropping  astern.  The 
current  is  bearing  us  out  to  sea  without  a  breath  of  wind. 
What  matters  it,  so  long  as  the  stock  of  young  cocoa- 
nuts  holds  out  ?  A  few  strokes  of  the  knife  will  open 
one,  and  then  there  is  a  bowlful  of  tipple  that  satisfies 
both  hunger  and  thirst  and  steeps  one  with  somnolence. 
The  Professor  takes  the  hummock  of  baggage  for  his 
bed,  while  I  crawl  into  the  bottom  of  the  lifeboat. 
Around  us  is  the  broad  expanse  of  the  Caribbean  heav- 
ing under  the  steady  glow  of  the  tropical  constellations. 
The  pilot  grasps  the  tiller  firmly  as  he  ostentatiously 
braces  himself  for  an  all-night  watch.  Passengers  and 
crew  are  at  liberty  to  sleep  as  they  may. 

Morning  brings  with  it  a  faint  violet  flush  that  pre- 
cedes the  sunrise,  —  a  faint  tone  that  is  not  light,  but 
has  the  promise  of  it.  The  stars  are  still  aglow,  and  we 
cannot  tell  in  what  quarter  the  sun  will  rise.  There  is 
no  land  in  sight.  The  Carib  pilot  has  been  heading  by 
guesswork,  or  more  probably  he  has  been  dozing  the 
greater  part  of  the  night  and  allowing  the  boat  to  take 
its  own  course.  The  Professor  whips  out  a  pocket- 
compass,  and  discovers  that  the  bow  is  pointing  due 
northeast,  or  in  the  direction  of  Jamaica.  The  pilot  evi- 
dently does  not  know  where  he  is,  but  he  is  too  wary  a 
veteran  to  be  tricked  by  a  Yankee  toy  caught  on  a  watch- 
chain.  He  declines  to  believe  that  he  is  gt)ing  away 
from  Greytown  instead  of  approaching  it,  and  is  not  to 


366  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

be  convinced  until  the  light  is  strong  enough  to  enable 
him  to  catch  a  distant  glimpse  of  Round  Top,  the  only- 
hill  north  of  the  San  Juan.  When  he  sees  that  familiar 
landmark  the  boat  is  headed  about,  and  passengers  and 
crew  unite  in  a  loud  call  for  a  breeze.  Hour  after  hour 
passes  and  the  sails  are  not  drawing.  The  dead  calm 
stretches  through  the  forenoon,  and  the  glare  of  the  mid- 
day sun  brings  with  it  no  change.  At  least  half  of  the 
cocoanuts  have  been  tapped,  and  the  boat  only  crawls  by 
inches  to  the  haven  where  dinners  are  served.  This, 
indeed,  is  Mananaland.  Yankee  energy  may  fret  and 
fume,  but  it  cannot  prevail  to  drive  a  boat  in  the 
Caribbean  that  is  caught  in  a  dead  calm. 

At  last,  soon  after  noontime,  the  welcome  wind  came 
to  help  out  the  sluggish  current.  The  cloud-puff  of 
smoke  in  the  horizon  which  had  been  seen  from  day- 
break and  identified  as  the  foul  breath  of  one  of  the 
canal  dredges,  drew  nearer  and  larger  hour  by  hour. 
The  cluster  of  buildings  on  the  outer  beach,  used  by  the 
Canal  Company  as  their  headquarters,  hospitals,  work- 
ing rooms,  and  chief  engineer's  residence,  was  first  seen, 
and  then  further  up  the  harbor  Greytown  itself.  The 
breeze  freshened  and  carried  us  over  the  bar  to  the  nar- 
row entrance  of  the  port,  where  a  steam  pile-driver  and 
a  huge  dredge  were  anchored  off  the  unfinished  break- 
water. Opposite  the  dredge  were  sand  heaps  midway 
in  the  channel.  A  sharp  turn  brought  us  to  the  ojDen- 
ing  of  the  canal,  where  another  dredge  was  in  opera- 
tion. The  lagoon  beyond  the  breakwater  was  broad 
and  spacious,  and  the  town  lay  behind  it.  The  Pro- 
fessor and  T  were  not  in  a  condition  of  mind  or  body 
favorable  for  scientific  observation  of  the  canal.  We 
had   supped,  breakfasted,    and   lunched   on    cocoanuts. 


THE  MOSQUITO   RESERVATION  357 

and  were  in  need  of  a  change  of  regimen.  The  delay 
caused  by  the  necessity  of  reporting  to  the  customs 
officials  the  arrival  of  the  passengers  and  mails  seemed 
intolerable.  When  permission  to  land  was  given,  the 
Caribs  paddled  us  up  to  a  little  creek  and  dropped  our 
baggage  at  a  worm-eaten  wharf.  A  short  walk  brought 
us  to  a  shabby  plaza,  with  a  Catholic  church  and  a  Bap- 
tist chapel,  flanked  on  the  opposite  side  by  two  hotels. 
A  street-car  trundling  by  and  a  club-house  were  signs 
of  progress.  Three  crosses  a  block  away,  where  the 
Crucifixion  scene  was  to  be  enacted  as  a  Passion  Play 
with  coarse  realism  in  a  few  days,  were  intimations  of 
mediaeval  mummery  and  superstition.  There  would  be 
ample  leisure  for  full  observation  of  all  these  novelties 
and  vagaries.  Our  first  quest  after  our  cruise  with  the 
Caribs  was  a  well-cooked  English  dinner,  and  we  found 
it,  and  it  was  something  more  than  milk  in  the  cocoa- 
nut. 


XVIII 

UP   THE   SAN  JUAN 

CONTRAST  BETWEEN  PANAMA  AND  GRETTOWN  —  THE  NICA- 
RAGUA CANAL  —  PASSAGE  OF  THE  COLORADO  BAR  —  THE 
CENTRAL  AMERICAN   FOREST  —  THE  RIVAL    INTEROCEANIC 

WATERWAYS LAKE  NICARAGUA WALKEr's  EXPLOITS  — 

AMERICAN  CONTROL    OVER   AN    INTEROCEANIC    CANAL 

Greyto"WN  has  become  like  Panama  the  base  of 
engineering  operations  for  the  construction  of  an  inter- 
oceanic  canal,  but  it  has  remained  a  somnolent  and 
reputable  town.  Two  years  of  sluggish  work  on  the 
harbor  improvements  and  the  canal  have  not  wrought 
any  perceptible  change  in  the  morals  of  the  community. 
The  times  are  dull  and  there  is  no  feverish  excitement. 
Tainted  adventurers,  diamond  speculators,  gamblers, 
and  rakes  have  not  taken  possession  of  the  town.  At 
Panama  there  was  a  mad  revel  of  profligacy.  At 
Greytown  there  is  a  modest  club-house  where  billiards 
are  played  and  strangers  are  entertained  hospitably ;  but 
there  are  no  signs  of  improvidence,  reckless  play,  and  a 
prolonged  debauch  of  speculative  excitement.  Nothing 
has  occurred  to  vary  the  monotony  of  drowsy  existence. 
There  are  no  contractors  flaunting  their  jewels  and 
bragging  of  fortunes  made  in  the  course  of  a  few 
months  or  lost  at  the  gaming  table  in  a  single  night. 
Those  employed  in  the  canal  work  are  living  quietly, 
spending  very  little  money,  and  complaining  because 
they  are  not  well  paid.  There  is  every  indication  of 
358 


UP  THE   SAN   JUAN  359 

economical  and  even  close  management  of  the  finances 
of  the  construction  company.  Work  has  either  dragged 
or  has  been  imperfectly  and  wastefully  done  from  the 
lack  of  suitable  plant,  financial  resources,  and  an  ade- 
quate force  of  laborers.  The  Panama  scheme  was 
floated  on  champagne  and  cognac.  The  Nicaragua 
Canal  holds  water  only;  but,  unfortunately,  it  is  slack 
water  at  a  low  level. 

Every  facility  for  examining  the  work  and  j)lant  was 
offered  to  me  by  Mr.  Menocal,  the  Chief  Engineer.  I 
saw  the  dredges  in  operation  at  the  breakwater  and  in 
the  entrance  cut  of  the  canal,  visited  the  pier,  wharves, 
machine  shops,  headquarters,  and  hospitals  and  went  out 
on  the  railway  ten  miles  to  the  advanced  camps  of  the 
construction  parties.  The  force  employed  in  March, 
1891,  did  not  exceed  600  men,  large  reductions  having 
been  effected  as  soon  as  the  expenditures  passed  the 
limit  guaranteed  by  the  company  in  its  contract  with 
the  Government  of  Nicaragua.  There  was  an  artificial 
attempt  to  keep  up  appearances  of  work  at  various 
points,  but  no  keen  observer  could  go  about  the  lagoon 
without  perceiving  that  retrenchment  was  the  order  of 
the  day.  As  a  long  period  was  allowed  for  the  comple- 
tion of  the  canal  by  the  conditions  of  the  contract  there 
was  no  pressing  necessity  for  haste,  and  progress  would 
inevitably  be  slow  until  arrangements  were  made  in 
New  York,  Washington,  or  London  for  securing  the 
capital  required  for  successful  handling  of  the  plant. 

When  work  was  begun  in  October,  1889,  the  harbor 
of  Greytown  was  completely  closed  by  sand  dunes 
lying  high  above  water  from  shore  to  shore.  At  New 
Orleans  and  at  Bluefields  I  had  been  repeatedly  told 
that  the  harbor  was  rapidly  filling  with  sand  from  the 


360  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

San  Juan  River,  and  that  engineering  operations  would 
ultimately  be  abandoned  because  there  was  not  suffi- 
cient force  in  the  current  to  wash  out  the  entrance  and 
to  prevent  tlie  formation  of  a  new  bar.  Such  criticism 
was  declared  by  Mr.  Menocal  to  be  based  upon  the  erro- 
neous assumption  that  a  sluggish  river  had  sealed  the 
harbor.  The  real  agent  had  been  the  sea  waves  filled 
with  the  wash  of  the  Colorado  River.  These  waves 
striking  the  spit  at  the  eastern  side  had  heaped  it 
higher  and  higher  with  sand  year  by  year,  and  built  it 
out  further  and  further  until  the  opposite  shore  was 
reached.  In  this  way  what  was  once  a  deep  harbor 
easily  approached  from  the  sea  was  converted  into  a 
fresh-water  lagoon.  The  first  work  was  the  restoration 
of  the  harbor  by  the  formation  of  a  new  coast  line, 
which  would  shelter  the  entrance  channel  from  the 
wash  of  the  waves.  In  fourteen  months  a  breakwater 
was  built,  and  when  it  was  only  half  finished  the  harbor 
was  opened. 

While  the  engineers  were  successful  in  the  first  onset 
they  had  not  won  their  battle.  Nature  is  a  stubborn 
antagonist,  and  has  to  be  conquered  foot  by  foot  on  her 
own  ground.  During  the  early  months  of  1891  there 
was  a  succession  of  fierce  northers,  and  while  the  stabil- 
ity of  the  jetty  was  not  impaired  there  were  fresh  depos- 
its of  sand  in  the  entrance  passage.  Old  forces  resumed 
the  attack  upon  the  harbor  with  greatly  diminished 
power,  but  with  sufficient  efficiency  to  diminish  the 
depth  of  water  at  least  five  feet.  Experience  had 
shown  that  a  short  pier  would  be  required,  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  channel  from  the  main  breakwater,  in 
order  to  protect  the  passage  from  the  swirling  of  the 
sand  under  unusual  conditions  of  wind  and  current. 


UP   THE   SAN  JUAN  361 

While  the  work  will  be  liable  to  temporary  interruption 
from  the  same  causes,  which  have  operated  to  deposit 
sand  shoals  across  the  mouth  of  the  harbor,  the  engi- 
neers are  confident  that  when  the  two  piers  are  finished 
the  action  of  the  sea  waves  will  be  restricted  to  beach 
building  outside  the  line  of  the  channel.  If  their 
expectations  are  fulfilled  there  will  be  an  admirable 
harbor  for  shipping  entering  or  leaving  the  canal.  A 
spacious  lagoon  will  be  approached  by  a  broad  channel 
twenty  feet  deep  at  the  lowest. 

The  canal  cut  had  been  opened  in  March,  1891,  for 
a  distance  of  1200  yards,  with  excavation  to  the  depth 
of  sixteen  feet.  This  was  the  entrance  to  the  sea-level 
section,  which  was  to  be  carried  from  Greytown  to  the 
first  lock  in  the  valley  of  the  Deseado,  a  small  stream 
descending  from  a  high  ridge  known  as  the  Divide.  The 
dredges  were  cutting  sand  and  doing  good  work;  but 
there  would  be  better  progress,  the  engineers  declared, 
when  the  flat  alluvial  deposits  of  loam  and  clay  in  that 
section  were  reached.  The  width  of  the  cut  was  250 
feet ;  but  it  would  be  broadened  about  50  feet  before 
the  completion  of  the  work.  A  second  pair  of  dredges 
following  the  first  would  increase  the  depth  of  the 
channel  to  35  feet.  The  sand  was  carried  over  the 
railway  which  had  been  constructed  for  a  distance  of 
nine  miles  toward  the  Divide,  and  was  dumped  upon 
the  roadbed  of  a  new  section  which  had  been  graded 
for  a  distance  of  another  mile.  The  railway,  which  has 
been  built  through  swamps  bordering  upon  the  San  Juan- 
illo,  is  to  be  extended  to  Ochoa,  where  the  canal  will 
open  into  the  San  Juan  River  above  a  great  dam.  The 
excavations  made  for  the  railway  have  confirmed  the 
results  of  borings  along  the  line  of  the  canal,  and  have 


862  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

demonstrated  the  facility  witli  which  dredging  opera- 
tions can  be  conducted  the  greater  part  of  the  way. 
For  the  first  12^  miles,  a  depth  of  30  feet  can  be  secured 
with  the  aid  of  dredging  machinery  alone.  The  rock 
strata  are  found  where  stable  foundations  are  required 
for  the  locks.  Between  Ochoa  and  Greytown  there 
will  be  little  more  than  seventeen  miles  of  actual 
excavation,  fifteen  miles  of  free  navigation  being  pro- 
vided by  natural  basins.  The  locks  which  will  be  re- 
quired have  already  been  duplicated  in  the  Lake  Superior 
canals,  and  have  been  shown  to  be  equal  to  the  require- 
ments of  an  enormous  carrying  trade.  There  will  be 
three  of  these  locks  in  the  eastern  and  as  many  in  the 
western  section. 

A -large  plant  was  purchased  by  the  company  at  Colon, 
including  seven  dredges.  The  dredges  were  not  adapted 
for  operating  successfully  in  rough  water  at  the  break- 
water, where  accidents  were  constantly  happening  owing 
to  the  deterioration  of  the  plant  while  it  was  at  the 
Isthmus ;  but  in  the  canal  cut  they  were  effective.  The 
working  quarters  of  the  company  are  between  two  and 
three  miles  from  Greytown,  and  are  connected  with  the 
Chief  Engineer's  residence  and  the  hospitals  by  a  narrow 
gauge  railway,  and  by  telephone  lines  with  the  camps 
and  other  points.  The  machine-shops  are  hardly  equal 
to  the  requirements  of  so  great  a  work,  but  all  the  other 
buildings  are  substantial  structures.  The  company  has 
a  telegraph  service  extending  to  Castillo  fifty-one  miles 
distant,  where  connection  is  made  with  the  government 
wires.  An  aqueduct  was  undertaken  for  supplying  the 
town  and  headquarters  with  water,  but  was  not  com- 
pleted. The  staff  is  strong  in  the  engineering  and 
drafting  departments.     The  final  survey  of  the  line  cost 


UP  THE   SAN   JUAN  863 

),000,  and  occupied  a  large  force  for  three  years. 
The  work  has  been  done  with  thoroughness,  as  many  as 
eighty  miles  having  been  surveyed  for  each  one  of  actual 
canal  line.  The  hospitals,  while  less  pretentious  than 
those  at  Panama,  are  well  planned  and  equipped  for 
service;  but  there  has  been  so  little  sickness  in  the 
working  force  that  the  resources  of  the  staff  have  not 
been  fairly  tested.  If  the  records  of  eighteen  months 
are  to  be  depended  upon,  it  will  be  safe  to  conclude  that 
the  canal  can  be  constructed  without  the  payment  of 
high  tribute  in  mortality.  The  working  force  has  been 
small  in  comparison  with  the  army  employed  on  the 
Isthmus ;  it  has  not  suffered  from  malarial  fevers  or 
any  form  of  pestilence.  There  were  only  a  dozen 
patients  in  the  wards  when  I  visited  them,  and  the 
majority  of  these  were  suffering  from  accidents. 

The  general  impression  which  I  carried  away  from 
Greytown  was  that  the  staff  had  shown  itself  equal  to 
the  requirements  of  planning  a  great  work,  but  had 
been  hampered  by  lack  of  money  and  appliances.  The 
dredging  in  the  inner  channel  had  been  wastefully  con- 
ducted, because  the  sand  was  thrown  upon  the  break- 
water where  much  of  it  was  washed  back.  The  engineers 
took  pains  to  demonstrate  that  the  expense  of  every  kind 
of  work  so  far  as  they  had  gone,  had  been  less  than  the 
estimates.  Much  of  the  dredging  ought  to  have  been 
cheap  as  it  was  only  half-done.  When  the  sand  is  loaded 
into  barges  and  dumped  into  the  sea  beyond  the  outer 
bar  there  will  be  a  fairer  comparison  between  actual  and 
estimated  cost.  There  were  several  serious  grounds  for 
criticism  in  the  harbor  work,  such  as  the  delay  in  filling 
up  sections  of  the  pier  with  stone.  With  a  larger  force 
and  a  complete  plant  there  would  undoubtedly  be  signs 


364  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

of  American  thoroughness  and  precision  in  the  engi- 
neering operations.  A  thousand  feet  of  breakwater, 
twelve  hundred  yards  of  canal  excavation,  ten  miles  of 
railway,  and  a  hundred  structures  of  various  kinds,  the 
clearing  of  the  line  of  the  canal  and  a  completed  survey 
represented  what  had  been  accomplished  during  eigh- 
teen months.  The  enterprise  had  barely  been  begun. 
The  great  rock  cut  at  the  Divide  had  not  been  ap- 
proached. The  Deseado,  San  Francisco,  and  Tola  basins 
were  to  be  banked  and  regulated.  Not  a  stone  had  been 
turned  for  the  big  dam  at  Ochoa.  A  base  of  operations 
had  been  established  and  much  preparatory  work  had 
been  done ;  and  while  the  reduction  of  decimals  in  esti- 
mates of  cost  might  be  a  pleasant  recreation,  the  staff 
had  really  not  gone  far  enough  to  justify  acceptance  of 
any  figures  for  the  probable  expense  of  the  canal.  Mr. 
Menocal  named  165,000,000  in  conversation  with  me. 
Another  expert  who  had  been  over  every  foot  of  ground 
and  examined  the  estimates  in  detail,  employed  the 
figure  three  as  a  common  multiple  for  the  calculations 
of  eveiy  section.  Tlie  staff  has  hardly  won  its  spurs, 
much  less  the  battle.  It  has  begun  the  breakwater,  the 
canal  cut,  the  construction  railway  and  the  aqueduct, 
and  has  not  carried  any  one  of  these  projects  to  com- 
pletion. Its  capacity  for  directing  the  main  engineering 
works  remains  to  be  demonstrated. 

The  San  Juan  is  a  noble  river,  but  it  ends  ignomini- 
ously.  Twenty  miles  from  the  sea  the  Colorado  taps 
its  current  and  draws  off  the  main  volume  of  its  waters. 
What  remains  oozes  into  shallow  lagoons  and  is  scat- 
tered among  shifting  sand  bars.  When  the  long  rainy 
season  sets  in  there  is  enough  water  for  both  rivers. 
For  nine  months  of  the  year  there  is  unimpeded  navi- 


UP   THE   SAN   JUAN  365 

gation  from  Lake  Nicaragua  to  Greytown;  but  from 
March  to  June,  when  the  water  is  very  low,  a  series  of 
dangerous  rapids  has  to  be  passed,  and  the  Colorado  fol- 
lowed over  a  line  of  breakers  to  the  sea.  As  it  was  the 
middle  of  March  when  I  left  Greytown,  I  had  a  long 
and  laborious  journey  from  the  Caribbean  to  the  Pacific. 
The  first  stage  of  the  journey  was  the  outside  pas- 
sage from  the  unfinished  breakwater  to  the  Colorado 
bar.  It  was  made  in  a  stanch  but  leaky  galley  com- 
manded by  an  American  naval  officer.  The  Petrel  was 
passed  outside  the  bar  at  Greytown,  a  swaggering  little 
warship,  with  four  formidable  guns.  The  first  cape 
beyond  the  breakwater  is  known  as  Harbor  Head,  where 
a  passage  from  the  lagoon  is  gradually  silting  up  with 
sand.  Beyond  it  there  is  another  outlet  of  the  San 
Juan,  which  is  flushed  out  during  the  rainy  season. 
This  opens  seaward,  and  not  into  the  lagoon,  which 
receives  the  diminished  waters  of  the  San  Juan  and 
forms  the  harbor  of  Greytown.  Colorado  bar  is  in 
Costa  Rica.  It  is  a  line  of  reefs,  with  swirling  currents 
and  foaming  breakers,  where  steamers  of  light  draught 
are  in  danger  of  striking  submerged  rocks  even  when 
the  sea  is  smooth.  When  the  water  is  rough,  and  a  high 
surf  is  running  over  the  bar,  the  passage  is  one  to 
induce  a  feeling  of  giddiness.  The  naval  officer  takes 
charge  of  the  wheel  as  the  breakers  are  approached, 
and  the  glow  on  his  face  and  the  sparkle  in  his  eyes 
disclose  his  sense  of  excitement.  It  is  for  the  sake  of 
piloting  the  boat  over  the  bar  that  he  is  content  with 
his  position  as  commander  of  a  craft  little  better  than 
a  tow-boat.  For  three  minutes  of  each  passage  he  has 
the  exhilarating  consciousness  of  being  in  extreme 
danger,  and   of   having   other    men's    lives    dependent 


366  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

upon  his  self-possession  and  nerve.  The  line  of  treach- 
erous reefs  is  directly  ahead;  the  boat  quivers  from 
stem  to  stern ;  a  moment  more  and  it  is  in  the  breakers 
and  has  shot  through  them,  its  decks  showered  with 
spray;  and  the  captain  leaves  the  wheel,  his  interest 
in  the  voyage  at  an  end. 

A  little  steamer  named  the  Yrma  lay  at  a  wharf  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Colorado.  It  had  brought  down  the 
river  a  number  of  passengers  from  Managua  and  Leon, 
and  they  had  been  a  week  on  the  way.  This  did  not 
promise  well  for  a  quick  passage  to  the  Pacific ;  but 
whoever  travels  in  Central  America  has  ceased  to  bor- 
row trouble  or  to  take  note  of  time,  jogging  along  as 
rapidly  as  possible,  and  counting  a  little  progress  each 
day  as  a  great  gain.  In  the  course  of  two  hours,  which 
I  passed  very  pleasantly  in  conversation  with  one  of  the 
belated  passengers,  Mr.  Hall,  formerly  United  States 
Minister  in  Central  America,  freight  was  exchanged, 
and  the  two  steamers  started  out  together,  one  for 
Greytown  and  the  other  for  Machuca  Rapids. 

The  banks  of  the  Colorado  are  low  and  marshy  in 
the  lower  reaches,  and  the  waters  swarm  with  alligators 
of  large  size.  There  are  numerous  islands  covered 
with  sedgy  underbrush  and  stagnant  reaches  at  every 
turn  of  the  channel.  Then  opens  a  dense  tract  of 
impenetrable  wilderness  stretching  from  the  coast  to 
Lake  Nicaragua.  The  trees  are  bound  together  with  a 
tangle  of  parasitic  plants  and  vines.  The  trunks  are 
bare  for  fifteen  or  twenty  feet,  and  then  the  branches 
spread  out  in  all  directions,  loaded  with  lichens,  mosses, 
and  festoons  of  orchids  and  creepers/K  The  trees  are 
crowded  close  together,  and  are  straight  and  slender, 
with  foliage  high  above  the  ground.     From  a  distance 


UP   THE   SAN   JUAN  367 

the  tropical  forest  looks  like  the  woodlands  along  the 
banks  of  a  northern  river;  but  when  the  shore  is 
approached  tufted  tops  of  palms,  and  tangled  tracery 
of  parasitic  vines,  are  unerring  indications  of  the  vege- 
tation of  the  torrid  zone.  The  San  Juan  is  the  only- 
highway  through  a  wilderness,  where  there  are  no 
roads,  no  clearings,  no  grassy  levels,  and  no  habitations, 
and  where  a  trail  has  to  be  cut  with  the  knife,  if  mahog- 
any is  to  be  felled  or  rubber  trees  are  to  be  milked. 
It  is  a  forest  where  the  most  beautiful  orchids  hang 
from  bough  to  bough,  and  where  parrots,  toucans,  and 
tanagers  are  fluttering  and  screaming  in  the  tree  tops. 
As  mile  after  mile  is  passed,  the  heavily  wooded  banks 
close  like  palisades  behind  the  puffing  little  steamer, 
and  fresh  walls  of  tropical  vegetation,  ribbed  with  the 
white  trunks  of  dead  trees,  open  drearily  in  advance. 

The  first  night  was  passed  at  the  junction  of  the  San 
Juan  and  Colorado  rivers.  On  the  second  afternoon 
Ochoa  was  reached,  at  the  entrance  to  the  highlands. 
This  is  the  point  where  the  great  dam  is  projected,  so 
as  to  increase  the  depth  of  water  in  the  river,  and  to 
create  a  ship  channel,  which  will  be  navigable  at  all 
seasons.  What  can  now  be  seen  is  a  little  creek,  the 
Machado,  on  the  north  bank,  with  high  wooded  hills  on 
each  side  of  the  river.  The  canal  will  enter  the  river 
above  the  dam,  31|  miles  from  Grey  town,  by  way  of  the 
Deseado  and  San  Francisco  basins.  The  dam  is  to  be 
1250  feet  long,  with  abutments  of  650  feet,  and  is  to  be 
built  of  rock  filling  and  earth  backing,  averaging  61  feet 
in  height  above  the  river  bottom,  25  feet  in  thickness  at 
the  top,  and  500  feet  at  the  bottom.  The  material  for 
this  dam  will  be  brought  by  the  construction  riiihvay, 
from  the  Divide,  where  the  great  cut  is  to  be  made. 


368  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

Since  dams  of  larger  dimensions  than  those  of  Ochoa 
have  been  built,  this  engineering  work  is  not  to  be  con- 
demned as  impracticable.  If  the  ends  are  carried  well 
into  the  hills,  and  the  structure  heavily  weighted  with 
rock,  and  provided  with  substantial  concrete  walls,  it 
will  be  strong  enough  to  resist  flood  pressure  during  the 
rainy  season.  The  dam  will  create  a  slack-water  chan- 
nel, 1000  feet  wide,  with  depths  ranging  from  30  to  130 
feet.  Large  areas  of  river-bank  and  forest  will  be 
flooded,  and  the  river  San  Carlos,  now  an  insignificant 
creek,  will  be  enlarged  into  a  spacious  lagoon,  navigable 
for  long  distances,  into  the  heart  of  Costa  Rica. 

The  channel  as  it  is  now,  seen  at  low  water,  is  ob- 
structed by  a  series  of  rapids.  At  Machuca,  where  a 
little  stream  flows  into  the  San  Juan  from  the  North, 
there  are  two  bends,  with  an  island  midway,  and  two 
lines  of  rapids,  which  cannot  be  passed  at  high  water. 
The  Yrma's  freight  was  transferred  to  barges,  which 
were  cautiously  poled  up  the  rapids,  —  an  operation 
requiring  three  hours.  The  passengers  had  to  choose 
between  following  their  baggage  in  the  barges,  and 
walking  two  miles  through  the  forest,  over  a  rough 
trail.  Then,  in  due  course  of  Nicaraguan  time,  —  the 
slowest  reach  of  the  pendulum  on  the  planet,  —  a  little 
steamer,  the  Adele,  came  down  from  Castillo,  and  res- 
cued the  passengers  from  the  ravages  of  mosquitoes  and 
the  pangs  of  hunger.  The  Bolas  rapids  were  further 
up  the  river,  opposite  a  high  bank,  and  not  a  long  way 
off  were  the  Mica  rapids,  where  a  line  of  rocks  stretched 
across  the  river.  The  Adele  hung  off  the  rocks  at  least 
five  minutes,  unable  to  make  headway  against  the  cur- 
rent, although  the  furnaces  had  been  raked  down,  and 
the  steam  pressure  was  beyond  the  safety  mark.     The 


UP   THE   SAN  JUAN  369 

Castillo  rapids  were  avoided  by  a  short  tram  route. 
Another  little  steamer  started  under  the  shadow  of  a 
crumbling  old  fortress,  and  before  breasting  the  Toro 
rapids  was  tied  up  along  shore,  where  the  firemen  could 
clear  the  furnaces  of  ashes  and  pile  on  the  wood,  so  as 
to  make  a  roaring  blaze.  When  the  steam  was  at  a 
dangerously  high  point  the  boat  shot  out  into  the  stream, 
to  struggle  laboriously  against  the  current,  and  to  gain 
upon  it  by  inches.  With  a  hundred  passengers  huddled 
around  a  boiler,  which  ought  to  have  been  condemned 
years  before  along  with  the  craft,  there  was  ample  leis- 
ure for  conjecturing  the  consequences  of  an  explosion. 

All  these  rapids,  except  the  Toro,  will  be  covered 
with  23  feet  of  water  in  the  dry  season  by  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Ochoa  dam.  At  Machuca  and  Castillo  some 
blasting  will  be  done,  but  at  Toro  dredging  will  be  re- 
quired. Apart  from  the  dam  at  Ochoa,  a  ship-channel 
of  great  breadth  and  adequate  depth  will  be  obtained, 
with  very  little  effort  and  expense.  The  engineers  have 
estimated  that  not  more  than  21  embankments  will 
have  to  be  constructed  for  the  control  of  the  increased 
volume  of  water.  Nature  has  done  a  large  part  of  the 
work  of  connecting  the  two  oceans,  and  has  greatly 
facilitated  the  completion  of  the  waterway  by  man. 

The  total  length  of  the  proposed  canal  is  169|  miles. 
Of  this  only  28.89  miles  represent  canal  in  excavation. 
There  will  be  free  navigation  for  150.78  miles,  120|- 
miles  in  the  river  and  lake  and  the  remainder  in  arti- 
ficial basins,  which  will  be  regulated  by  embankments. 
The  geological  conditions  are  most  favorable,  except  at 
the  Divide  where  there  is  a  rock  cut  of  three  miles  from 
the  Deseado  to  the  San  Francisco  basin.  The  grreat  reser- 
voirs  of  Lake  Nicaragua  and  Lake  Managua  will  furnish 


370  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

a  high-level  water  supply  adequate  for  meeting  all  the 
requirements  of  canal  lockage  and  protection  of  the 
waterway  in  the  rainy  season.  At  the  Isthmus  there 
were  mountains  to  be  pierced  and  brought  down  to  the 
sea-level;  there  were  floods  to  be  regulated  without 
sufficient  area  for  reservoirs ;  there  was  a  deadly  cli- 
mate ;  and  there  were  no  winds  in  the  Bay  of  Panama 
to  carry  sailing  vessels  out  into  the  Pacific  from  the 
canal.  The  engineers  there  seemed  to  be  working  against 
nature.  In  Nicaragua  nature  has  nearly  worked  out 
the  problem  of  interoceanic  transit  without  assistance 
from  man.  The  lake  is  within  seventeen  miles  of  the 
Pacific,  and  the  river  is  a  ship  channel  for  64  miles,  or 
within  31^  miles  of  the  Caribbean.  There  are  three 
natural  basins  of  large  area  which  can  be  flooded  during 
the  rainy  season  without  injury  to  the  canal.  There  is 
a  climate  favorable  for  the  construction  of  a  work  of 
the  first  magnitude.  There  are  prevailing  winds  which 
will  carry  sailing  vessels  into  the  canal  on  either  side, 
without  risk  of  their  being  becalmed  for  weeks  at  the 
other  end.  Nature  is  not  antagonized  but  is  the  con- 
stant ally  of  the  Nicaragua  project. 

With  the  passage  of  the  Toro  rapids  ended  the  viciS' 
situdes  and  makeshifts  of  the  journey.  The  Managua, 
the  best  steamer  of  the  line,  made  a  quick  and  delight- 
ful passage  to  San  Carlos,  and  transferred  a  large  com- 
pany of  travellers  to  the  Victoria,  which  crossed  the 
lake  in  twenty-four  hours,  calling  at  various  stations. 
The  passage  across  Lake  Nicaragua  offers  many  scenic 
attractions.  From  San  Ubaldo,  the  course  lies  directly 
across  the  lake  to  San  Jorge  on  the  western  shore. 
The  most  impressive  mountain  of  this  inland  sea  is 
Ometepe,  a   volcanic  peak  a  little   over  5000   feet  in 


UP  THE   SAN   JUAN  371 

height.  It  stands  on  a  large  island  in  the  lake  and 
like  Madera,  a  companion  peak,  seems  to  rise  out  of  the 
water  until  its  cone  cleaves  the  sky.  From  San  Carlos 
its  shapely  outline  is  clearly  seen,  but  the  noble  propor- 
tions of  the  volcano  are  not  revealed  until  the  lake  is 
crossed  from  San  Ubaldo.  Hour  by  hour  it  is  approached 
until  the  steamer  skirts  the  edge  of  the  island  and  runs 
into  San  Jorge.  Further  north  towards  Granada  there 
is  another  massive  volcano,  Mombacho,  towering  to  a 
height  of  4700  feet.  These  mountains  being  seen 
from  the  level  of  the  lake  have  the  effect  of  being  twice 
as  high  as  they  are.  Their  flanks  are  covered  with 
dense  forest  and  their  summits  are  streaked  with  lava 
streams,  unerring  signs  of  old-time  energy  and  destruc- 
tive force.  If  the  Nicaragua  Canal  be  completed  trav- 
ellers will  have  magnificent  mountain  prospects  in 
passing  from  ocean  to  ocean.  While  the  San  Juan  will 
offer  entrancing  glimpses  of  primeval  tropical  forest, 
Lake  Nicaragua  will  bring  them  under  the  shadow  of  at 
least  one  volcano,  which  is  almost  pulsating  with  life, 
and  is  sometimes  crowned  with  a  yellow  halo  of  smoke. 
The  western  shore  of  Lake  Nicaragua  was  the  scene 
of  Walker's  military  operations.  Rivas  and  San  Jorge 
under  the  shadow  of  Ometepe  and  Madera  witnessed 
his  earliest  successes,  and  his  surrender  to  a  guard  from 
a  United  States  man-of-war.  The  short  road  from  the 
lake  to  the  Pacific,  which  will  be  followed  in  the  main 
by  the  ship  canal,  was  his  line  of  supplies  since  his 
reinforcements  were  drawn  from  the  steamers  touch- 
ing at  San  Juan  del  Sur.  The  withdrawal  of  these 
steamers  in  connection  with  Marcy's  diplomacy  involved 
his  ruin,  since  adventurers  could  no  longer  flock  to 
his  standard  from  California  and  the  Southern  States. 


372  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

Masaya  was  the  scene  of  one  of  his  most  brilliant  sorties, 
and  Granada  was  captured  by  a  master  stroke  of  au- 
dacity, only  to  be  abandoned  and  burned  when  it  became 
necessary  for  him  to  concentrate  his  forces  at  Rivas  as 
a  last  line  of  defence.  Houses  occupied  by  him  at 
Greytown,  and  the  camping-grounds  of  his  second  army 
of  filibusters  on  the  Colorado,  are  still  pointed  out  to 
the  traveller  who  crosses  Nicaragua,  and  his  name  is 
indissolubly  associated  with  the  barren  plazas  and  bat- 
tered churches  of  Granada.  The  memory  of  this  famous 
leader  of  a  lost  cause  has  suffered  equally  from  the  un- 
discriminating  denunciations  of  abolitionist  foes  and 
the  panegyrics  of  partisans.  If  his  character  has  been 
unjustly  despoiled  of  all  soldierly  qualities  and  redeem- 
ing traits,  it  has  also  been  idealized  by  poetic  license 
until  the  surviving  veterans  of  his  picturesque  band  of 
filibusters  have  been  unable  to  recognize  the  caricature. 
Walker's  chief  blunder  was  his  failure  to  recognize  the 
law  of  historical  environment.  A  belated  Cortes,  in  the 
heart  of  Central  America  in  1856,  was  as  misplaced  and 
fantastic  a  figure  as  a  pious,  bloodthirsty,  and  Spaniard- 
hating  buccaneer  would  have  been  on  the  Caribbean. 

The  intervention  of  Walker  in  Nicaraguan  affairs  was 
caused  by  the  rivalries  between  two  cities,  Granada 
and  Leon,  each  of  which  was  bent  upon  ruling  the 
country.  The  same  faction  feud  has  continued  to  this 
day.  So  strong  was  the  feeling  of  jealousy,  that  it  was 
necessary  to  convert  a  third  and  more  obscure  town, 
Managua,  into  the  capital.  One  governing  cabal  is  con- 
stantly opposed  by  another,  and  revolutionary  outbreaks 
and  temporary  dictatorships  follow  in  natural  course. 
Central  American  politics  involve  plot  and  counterplot, 
one  faction  intriguing  against  another  and  being  merci- 
lessly dealt  with  in  defeat. 


UP   THE   SAN  JUAN  373 

Not  only  is  each  of  the  five  Republics  between  Mexico 
and  the  Isthmus  constantly  exposed  to  political  disturb- 
ance, but  they  are  intensely  jealous  of  one  another. 
Guatemala  and  Salvador  are  constantly  menacing  each 
other  with  attack  in  the  north,  and  for  generations 
Costa  Rica  and  Nicaragua  in  the  south  have  been  quar- 
relling over  boundaries  and  cherishing  resentments  with 
passionate  intensity  of  feeling.  These  facts  have  an 
important  bearing  upon  the  proposed  interoceanic  water- 
way. Not  only  will  it  pass  through  a  State  in  which 
the  political  conditions  are  most  unstable,  but  the  San 
Juan  River  will  also  be  the  disputed  boundary  between 
two  jealous  nations.  Strong  as  is  the  desire  of  Nica- 
ragua for  the  successful  construction  of  the  canal,  it  is 
apparently  unable  to  reconcile  itself  to  the  idea  of  shar- 
ing with  Costa  Rica  the  honor  and  advantages  of  the 
work.  National  resentments  have  been  revealed  at 
every  stage  of  the  negotiations  conducted  by  Mr. 
Menocal  and  Mr.  Hall  for  obtaining  the  canal  conces- 
sions. Contracts  were  made  with  both  governments, 
for  the  payment  of  compensating  damages,  and  for  the 
issue  of  blocks  of  stock,  in  return  for  the  concessions ; 
but  while  each  was  satisfied  with  its  own  terms,  neither 
was  willing  to  ratify  its  engagements  with  the  other. 
Although  the  frontier  dispute  was  nominally  settled  by 
the  decision  of  President  Cleveland,  Nicaragua  has  not 
accepted  the  results  of  arbitration,  nor  united  with  Costa 
Rica  in  the  boundary  survey.  Much  diplomatic  pres- 
sure will  be  needed  from  Washington,  before  these  two 
jealous  States  can  be  induced  to  come  to  terms,  and  to 
live  peaceably  with  each  other. 

If  the  canal  be  completed  and  opened,  it  will  be  neces- 
sary to  arm  some  foreign  power  with  the  same  right 
of  protection  which  the  United  States  Government  has 


874  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

exercised  over  the  property  of  the  Panama  Railway. 
Under  the  Monroe  Doctrine  that  power  must  be  the 
United  States.  The  circuit  of  canal  diplomacy  will 
never  be  complete  until  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty  is 
abrogated.  So  long  as  that  convention,  which  has 
never  served  any  useful  purpose,  retains  a  semblance 
of  authority  as  treaty  law,  it  will  be  a  source  of  inter- 
national complications.  The  present  guardianship  of 
the  Mosquito  Reservation  by  England,  under  a  decision 
made  by  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  is  an  adequate  war- 
rant for  the  withdrawal  of  the  United  States  from  that 
unfortunate  compact.  The  conversion  of  the  lumber 
settlements  at  Belize  into  a  Crown  Colony  has  implied 
as  clear  a  repudiation  of  the  covenant  upon  which  the 
joint  protectorate  was  based.  Before  the  canal  is  fin- 
ished, every  prohibition  of  the  right  of  the  United 
States  to  hold  political  control  over  it  in  conjunction 
with  the  two  quarrelsome  States  through  which  it 
passes,  and  also  to  fortify  and  to  garrison  islands  in  the 
lake  near  San  Carlos,  ought  to  be  removed  by  the 
cancellation  or  revision  of  that  treaty. 

The  Nicaraguan  Government,  as  I  learned  from  vari- 
ous trustworthy  sources  at  Managua,  was  disappointed 
because  the  work  on  the  canal  was  not  advancing 
more  rapidly,  and  was  listening  credulously  to  criticism 
offered  by  English  and  German  residents,  who  were 
doing  everything  in  their  power  to  discredit  the  enter- 
prise. These  opponents  of  the  canal  asserted  that 
Americans  had  been  talking  for  forty  years  about  con- 
structing a  waterway,  and  had  accomplished  little  be- 
yond surface  surveys  and  a  half-finished  breakwater. 
They  magnified  the  engineering  difficulties  of  the 
work,  and  assumed  that  the  capital  never  could  be 
raised  without  a   government   guaranty,  and  that  the 


UP   THE   SAN   JUAN  375 

United  States  Congress  had  practically  vetoed  the  pro- 
posal precisely  as  it  had  rejected  the  canal  treaty 
negotiated  under  the  Arthur  administration.  Having 
demonstrated  to  their  own  satisfaction  the  impractica- 
bility of  the  project,  they  referred  confidently  to  the 
railway  scheme  for  connecting  the  two  coasts.  An 
English  syndicate  has  already  been  formed  for  con- 
structing a  railway  from  San  Ubaldo,  on  the  eastern 
shore  of  Lake  Nicaragua,  to  Rama,  on  the  edge  of  the 
Mosquito  Reservation.  This  railway  of  102  miles  will 
be  built  through  the  forest,  so  as  to  connect  the  Carib- 
bean with  the  lake  system.  An  extension  of  this  line 
around  Lake  Nicaragua  to  Granada  is  also  projected, 
and  this  with  a  loop  around  Lake  Managua  will  connect 
the  oceans  by  an  all-rail  route.  Some  enthusiasts  at 
Managua  have  gone  so  far  as  to  predict  that  if  the 
Nicaraguan  Government  can  make  an  amicable  arrange- 
ment with  the  population  of  the  Reservation,  England 
will  consent  to  the  annexation  of  the  district.  The 
bait  is  thrown  out  that  when  the  railway  is  completed 
to  Rama,  the  whole  coast  from  Greytown  to  Cape  Gracias 
will  be  brought  under  the  control  of  Nicaragua.  How 
this  result  is  to  be  accomplished,  when  the  Reservation 
is  violently  opposed  to  annexation,  and  when  its  rights 
are  guaranteed  by  the  English  treaty  and  the  decision 
of  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  these  speculative  diploma- 
tists do  not  explain.  The  fact  remains  that  the  syndicate 
is  providing  Nicaragua  with  a  new  transit  route,  while 
an  American  corporation  is  conducting  with  a  discour- 
aging degree  of  deliberation  work  on  the  interoceanic 
canal.  There  is  a  sharp  contrast  here  between  English 
performance  and  American  procrastination  and  inaction. 


XIX 

GLIMPSES   OF   CENTRAL  AMERICA 

CITIES     AND     SCENERY     OF     THE     WESTERN     PLATEAU PAS- 
SION-PLAYS   AND    RELIGIOUS    PROCESSIONS PROGRESS    OF 

COSTA    RICA FACTION    FEUDS    AND    STANDING   ARMIES 

THE    BARRUNDIA     AFFAIR FEDERATION     AND     RAILWAY 

CONSTRUCTION 

Nicaragua,  while  the  largest  of  the  Central  American 
States  in  territorial  extent,  is,  with  the  exception  of 
Costa  Rica,  the  least  populous.  It  has  no  foreign  debt, 
and  while  its  resources  are  undeveloped,  it  is  in  ex- 
cellent financial  condition.  Its  chief  exports  are  coffee, 
rubber,  indigo,  dyewoods,  mahogany,  and  bananas. 
East  of  the  lakes  there  is  a  fine  grazing  country,  sup- 
porting large  droves  of  cattle.  Cacao  is  successfully 
cultivated  on  the  western  plateau,  and  sugar  can  be 
produced  on  a  large  scale,  when  adequate  facilities  for 
grinding  and  boiling  the  cane  are  provided.  The  forests 
are  rich  in  mahogany,  cedar,  rosewood,  ebony,  and 
rubber.  The  east  coast  is  admirably  adapted  for  the 
cultivation  of  bananas.  There  are  also  signs  of  mineral 
wealth  in  the  interior.  The  foreign  trade  of  Nicaragua 
is  chiefly  with  Great  Britain,  Germany,  and  the  United 
States.'  Germany  has  the  largest  share  of  the  imports; 
but  the  recent  development  of  the  banana  trade  is 
bringing  the  United  States  into  the  first  place  as  a 
market  for  the  exports. 
376 


GLIMPSES   OF   CENTRAL   AMERICA  377 

The  principal  towns  of  Nicaragua  lie  on  the  western 
plateau  that  slopes  gently  toward  the  Pacific.  The 
largest  is  Leon  with  a  population  of  25,000.  The  second 
in  importance  is  Managua,  on  the  southern  shore  of 
Lake  Managua.  It  is  the  capital  and  is  rapidly  becom- 
ing the  business  centre  of  the  country.  It  has  a 
population  of  18,000  and  has  something  resembling 
commercial  enterprise.  Granada,  on  the  western  shore 
of  Lake  Nicaragua,  was  founded  as  early  as  1522,  and 
when  burned  by  Walker  was  rebuilt  without  being  ma- 
terially improved.  In  1890  it  suffered  from  a  series  of 
severe  earthquake  shocks,  and  the  population,  alarmed 
by  the  experience,  is  now  declining,  not  exceeding 
15,000.  Ten  miles  from  Granada  is  the  Indian  town  of 
Masaya,  and  not  far  from  Corinto,  on  the  coast  there  is 
a  similar  town,  Chinandega.  Rivas  lies  to  the  south 
of  Granada  and  has  a  population  of  8000.  These  six 
cities  comprise  about  one-quarter  of  the  aggregate  popu- 
lation of  Nicaragua,  which  in  round  numbers  is  350,000. 
They  are  all  dreary  and  unattractive.  Masaya,  owing 
to  its  Indian  characteristics,  is  the  most  interesting; 
Leon  is  the  most  religious,  Managua  the  most  ambitious, 
and  Granada  the  most  dilaj^idated  and  the  shabbiest. 

A  description  of  one  town  will  answer  for  all.  The 
streets  are  unpaved  and  grass-grown,  and  in  the  rainy 
season  are  sloughs  of  slimy  mud.  Tlie  sidewalks  are 
raised  one  or  two  feet  above  the  street  level  so  as  to 
secure  houses  and  shops  against  floods.  The  buildings 
are  low  adobe  structures,  whitewashed  at  the  sides  and 
front,  and  roofed  with  red  tiles.  The  walls  are  very 
thick,  so  as  to  secure  stability  when  there  are  earth- 
quake shocks,  and  the  floors  are  paved  with  brick.  In 
Managua  there  are  government  buildings  and  a  minia- 


378  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

ture  school  of  arts  with  two  stories,  and  the  chief  hotels 
also  have  an  upper  floor ;  and  on  one  side  of  the  plaza 
in  Leon  there  is  a  municipal  palace,  with  a  second  tier 
of  windows ;  but  these  are  almost  the  only  exceptions 
to  the  limitations  of  ground-floor  architecture.  The 
shops  are  mean  and  shabby ;  the  houses  are  forlorn  and 
comfortless;  and  the  churches  are  tawdry  within  and 
ugly  without.  The  largest  church  in  Nicaragua  is  the 
cathedral  at  Leon,  fronting  upon  the  plaza;  but  it  is  of 
a  debased  type  of  architecture,  and  has  a  cold  and  bare 
interior.  The  plaza  church  in  Managua  has  a  facade 
such  as  a  child  could  make  with  building  blocks,  putting 
a  long  one  at  the  base,  two  shorter  pieces  above  it,  with 
squares  at  the  ends  cut  out,  and  a  fourth  one  in  the 
middle  above  the  second  layer.  A  hole  is  left  in  the 
centre  for  a  bell,  and  two  low  doorways  are  cut  through 
at  the  base.  La  Merced  Church  in  Granada  is  some- 
what better,  but  shabby  withal.  The  town  also  has  a 
university  built  in  a  quadrangle,  with  a  superannuated 
aspect.  The  most  modern  structure  in  urban  Nicaragua 
is  the  railway  depot  at  Granada. 

There  is,  however,  exceedingly  varied  scenery  on  the 
Western  plateau.  Besides  Ometepe  and  Mombacho,  the 
majestic  mountain  landmarks  of  Lake  Nicaragua,  there 
is  another  series  of  volcanoes  known  as  the  Marabios, 
and  seen  to  great  advantao-e  from  the  steamer  in  the 
passage  across  Lake  Managua.  These  lava-streaked 
mountains  vary  in  height  from  2000  to  7000  feet,  and 
there  are  fourteen  of  them  clustered  between  the  Lake 
and  the  Gulf  of  Fonseca.  Momotombito,  an  island  hum- 
mock in  the  Lake  at  the  base  of  giant  Momotombo,  is 
the  southernmost  of  the  series.  Viejo,  back  of  Corinto, 
lies  at  the  northern  bound  of  this  old-time  centre  of  vol- 


GLIMPSES   OF   CENTRAL   AMERICA  379 

canic  energy.  Momotombo  ordinarily  has  a  curling 
wreath  of  smoke  ascending  from  its  crater,  but  it  was 
not  on  exhibition  as  an  active  volcano  when  I  passed  it. 
As  a  mountain  of  magnificent  proportions,  symmetry  of 
form,  and  boldness  of  outline,  it  is  unrivalled  in  Central 
America.  The  forests  extend  from  the  shore  of  the 
lake  to  the  edge  of  the  crater,  where  there  is  rank  grass 
among  the  ash-heaps  and  lava  beds.  The  little  volcano 
in  front  of  it  is  a  foil  for  its  impressive  majesty,  and  the 
two  mountains  once  seen  across  the  green  level  of  Lake 
Managua  will  linger  in  the  memory  as  a  silhouette  of 
singular  beauty. 

From  this  line  of  volcanoes  to  the  coast  there  are 
broad  levels,  admirably  adapted  for  the  cultivation  of 
coffee  and  cacao.  At  the  base. of  Momotombo  there  is  a 
picturesque  Indian  hamlet  where  the  railway  train  is 
taken  for  Leon  and  Corinto.  The  first  stage  of  the  jour- 
ney is  made  through  a  forest  tract,  where  there  are  occa- 
sional clearings,  and  glimpses  of  the  volcanoes.  As  Leon 
is  approached,  wild  pineapple  fences  are  seen,  with  herds 
of  cattle  in  green  pastures.  There  are  cacao  and  coffee 
plantations,  the  shrubs  growing  in  the  dense  shade  of 
banana  and  coral  trees.  Palms  become  more  conspic- 
uous as  the  coast  is  approached.  The  plain  of  Leon, 
bounded  by  the  volcanoes  and  the  sea,  has  great  natural 
beauty.  If  it  were  in  a  high  state  of  cultivation,  and  the 
scrub  forest  were  cleared  away,  it  would  be  the  loveliest 
garden  in  Central  America.  Corinto  is  the  chief  port  of 
Nicaragua,  and  the  western  terminus  of  the  railway  and 
inland  water  system  of  transportation.  It  is  an  insig- 
nificant town,  on  a  low,  marshy  island. 

While  Nicaraguan  men  are  short  in  stature,  sharp  and 
irregular  in  feature,  and  lean  and  ill-built  in  figure,  the 


380  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

women  are  shapely,  with  swarthy  faces,  black  hair 
braided  and  tightly  coiled,  and  eyes  soft  and  lustrous. 
Custom  allows  them  to  wear  low-cut,  embroidered  che- 
mises and  cheap  gowns,  with  their  arms,  neck,  and  shoul- 
ders bare.  Women  of  the  lower  class,  with  their 
copper-colored  complexions,  resemble  the  Mexican  half- 
breeds.  They  are  not  as  immodest  as  their  style  of  dress 
and  volatile  temperament  seem  to  indicate.  There  are 
few  countries  in  Spanish  America  where  the  women 
have  so  many  homely  virtues,  or  where  the  men  are  so 
honest,  as  in  Nicaragua.  Although  the  doors  of  sleeping- 
rooms  in  the  hotels  are  neither  bolted  nor  locked,  and 
guests  herd  together  in  public  rooms,  under  conditions 
favorable  for  robbery,  thieves  are  unknown.  I  have 
never  travelled  in  a  foreign  country  where  I  had  the 
same  sense  of  security  against  dishonesty.  Even  the 
hackmen  in  the  towns  have  consciences,  and  do  not 
seek  to  over-charge  strangers. 

Nicaragua  is  an  intensely  religious  country.  I  passed 
from  ocean  to  ocean  during  Holy  Week,  and  witnessed 
the  image-bearing  processions  from  town  to  town.  At 
Greytown  I  missed  the  closing  scenes  of  the  Passion 
Play,  enacted  in  the  bare  plaza  and  the  sacred  precincts 
of  "Jerusalem."  The  triumphal  entry  under  palm 
branches,  the  Last  Supper,  the  trial  before  Pilate,  the 
mocking,  scourging,  and  Crucifixion  between  thieves, 
and  the  Resurrection  meeting  with  the  holy  women,  are 
reproduced  there  with  startling  realism.  The  part  of 
Saviour  is  taken  by  a  man,  and  enacted  with  religious 
feeling  bordering  upon  fanaticism.  The  Last  Supper  is 
eaten  with  the  twelve  on  a  raised  platform.  The  crowd 
join  in  the  fierce  acclaim,  "  Crucify  him ;  "  and  three  men 
hang  upon  as  many  crosses  in  the  sight  of  the  town,  the 


GLIMPSES   OF   CENTKAL   AMERICA      '  381 

nails  only  being  dispensed  with.  After  the  Crucifixion 
there  is  a  funeral  pageant,  and  a  large  image  of  the 
Saviour  is  taken  in  a  glass  coffin  to  the  church,  with 
the  chief  men  of  the  town  as  pall-bearers  and  honorary 
guards.  Such  was  the  account  of  the  proceedings  given 
to  me  by  residents. 

In  the  western  towns  religious  processions  take  the 
place  of  this  crude  Passion  Play.  At  Granada,  Mana- 
gua, and  especially  at  Leon,  there  is  a  parade  every 
night  during  Holy  Week.  A  large  image  is  strapped 
upon  a  mule  on  Palm  Sunday,  and  escorted  by  priests, 
soldiers,  and  bands  of  music  through  the  streets.  On 
Thursday  and  Friday  there  are  processions,  with  as 
many  as  twenty  or  thirty  images  dressed  in  purple  and 
black.  Hundreds  of  men  and  women  join  in  the  parade 
behind  the  hearse,  and  carry  lighted  candles,  which  have 
been  blessed  for  the  occasion  and  are  supposed  to  possess 
peculiar  sanctity.  The  bands  play  dirges,  the  garrison 
marches  to  drum-beat,  and  the  torch-bearers  enter  the 
churches,  and  prostrate  themselves  before  the  altar. 
Business  is  suspended  during  these  solemn  days,  and 
the  running  of  railway  trains  is  prohibited  by  the  Gov- 
ernment. Easter  finds  the  churches  filled  with  the 
images  of  the  Virgin  in  full  mourning,  and  of  the  Cru- 
cified with  riven  side  and  pierced  hands  and  feet.  In- 
congruous as  the  effects  of  costume  and  drapery  often 
are,  and  coarse,  and  even  vulgar,  as  are  the  images,  there 
is  no  lack  of  reverence  on  the  part  of  the  people. 

From  Corinto,  after  halting  in  the  towns  of  the  west- 
ern plateau,  I  sailed  for  Costa  Rica,  passing  Brito,  the 
canal  port,  and  running  into  San  Juan  del  Sur  for  a 
few  hours  on  the  way  south.  These  towns,  which  were 
prosperous  forty  years  ago,  during  the  era  of  the  Van- 


382  ■  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

derbilt  transit  trade  between  California  and  New  York, 
are  now  desolate  places.  Punta  Arenas  is  the  cleanest 
and  prettiest  port  to  be  found  in  Central  America.  It 
stands  upon  a  narrow  reach  of  sandy  beach,  with  a  back- 
ground of  forest-clad  hills.  The  Gulf  of  Nicoya,  a 
spacious  arm  of  the  sea,  lies  in  front  of  the  town,  its 
tranquil  surface  dotted  with  islands  of  enchanting  love- 
liness. A  broad  river  empties  into  the  Gulf,  and  forms 
a  safe  harbor  of  moderate  depth.  The  town  is  embow- 
ered in  cocoanut  clumps,  banana  tangles,  and  tropical 
gardens.  A  stroll  along  the  beach,  and  across  the  outer 
rim  of  grass-grown  lanes  and  commons,  reveals  nearly 
all  the  characteristic  trees  of  the  tropics,  —  magnolias 
shading  the  sidewalks,  mangoes  and  palms  standing  in 
the  fields,  and  tamarinds,  bananas,  oranges,  and  almonds 
ornamenting  the  gardens.  The  luxuriant  verdure  re- 
lieves eyes  that  are  strained  by  the  vivid  light  reflected 
from  the  white  sand.  The  town  is  unpretentious,  with 
clusters  of  small  shops  and  caf^s,  an  unfinished  church, 
and  rows  of  bamboo  huts  with  thatched  roofs ;  but  it  is 
homelike,  cheerful,  and  bright.  The  iron  wharf  on  the 
water  front  may  be  out  of  keeping  with  the  rustic  sur- 
roundings ;  but  this  is  quickly  forgotten  when  glimpses 
of  the  cactus  hedges  and  fruit  gardens  are  caught,  and 
the  simple,  unaffected  courtesy  of  the  people  is  revealed. 
Costa  Rica  has  a  population  several  degrees  lighter  in 
complexion  than  that  of  Nicaragua,  and  markedly  supe- 
rior to  it  in  education  and  refinement.  Land  is  subdi- 
vided until  nearly  every  family  owns  at  least  a  house 
and  garden,  and  extreme  poverty  is  rare.  The  people 
are  contented,  prosperous,  and  light-hearted.  If  the 
country  is  not  a  Rich  Coast,  as  its  name  implies,  it  is 
because  it  is  thinly  populated,  and  its  industrial  wealth 


GLIMPSES   OP   CENTRAL   AMERICA  383 

undeveloped.  In  the  interior  there  is  an  elevated  pla- 
teau, between  Alajuela  and  Cartago,  where  seven-eighths 
of  the  total  population  of  214,000  are  centred  in  a  terri- 
tory of  100  square  miles.  San  Josd,  the  capital,  lies  in 
the  heart  of  this  fertile  tableland,  and  is  encompassed 
with  extinct  volcanoes,  ranging  between  7000  and 
12,500  feet  above  the  sea.  It  is  a  handsome  and  pro- 
gressive city,  with  comfortable  hotels,  and  a  refined 
society,  noted  for  hospitality  to  foreigners.  Cartago, 
the  second  city,  lies  close  at  hand,  and  Alajuela  and 
Heredia  are  connected  with  the  capital  by  the  railway 
system,  which  extends  nearly  across  the  country,  from 
Punta  Arenas  to  Port  Limon.  There  is  only  one  short 
break  in  the  line,  and  that  is  on  the  Pacific  side,  from 
Esparta  to  Alajuela.  As  the  coffee  tract  has  direct 
railway  connection  with  Port  Limon,  the  chief  staple  of 
the  country  is  now  shipped  mainly  from  the  Caribbean 
side.  Punta  Arenas  seems  destined  to  decrease  as  Port 
Limon  increases.  The  completion  of  the  railway  may 
repair  its  shattered  fortunes ;  but  with  the  rival  port's 
superior  advantages  as  a  centre  of  the  banana  trade,  it 
cannot  hope  to  regain  its  commercial  supremacy.  The 
Caribbean  coast,  however,  is  markedly  inferior  to  the 
Pacific  side,  being  a  marshy  tract  covered  with  scrub- 
forest,  and  it  is  without  a  safe  anchorage  for  vessels. 
The  northern  and  southern  sections  of  Costa  Rica  are 
unexplored  wilderness,  similar  to  the  trackless  forests 
of  the  San  Juan. 

Costa  Rica,  while  the  least  populous,  is  the  most 
advanced  of  the  Central  American  Republics.  Its  capital 
is  lighted  by  electricity  and  it  has  cheap  telegraphs.  It 
has  good  educational  and  postal  systems,  and  is  display- 
ing great  enterprise  in  the  completion  of  public  works 


884  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

and  in  the  development  of  its  resources.  It  has  161|^ 
miles  of  railway  in  operation,  and  will  be  the  first  State 
to  connect  the  oceans.  A  railway  from  the  Jimenez  to 
the  Frio  on  the  border  of  Nicaragua  has  been  contracted 
for,  and  this  will  be  brought  into  connection  with  the 
main  lateral  line.  The  completion  of  the  Nicaragua 
Canal  will  open  a  large  section  of  the  northern  belt 
by  rendering  the  San  Carlos  navigable  through  the 
slack-water  of  Ochoa  Dam.  There  is  a  foreign  debt 
amounting  to  111,000,000.  Railway  projects  have  been 
dragging  from  lack  of  labor,  and  the  expansion  of  un- 
rivalled resources  as  a  coffee-growing  State  is  retarded 
from  the  same  cause.  It  has,  however,  an  industrious 
and  orderly  population,  is  improving  its  position  year 
by  year,  and  is  to  be  considered  the  most  promising 
community  in  that  quarter  of  Spanish  America. 

In  Costa  Rica,  as  in  Nicaragua,  the  military  garrisons 
head  the  religious  processions,  and  are  mustered  in  full 
force  during  Holy  Week.  I  witnessed  the  dress  parades 
of  these  ill-disciplined  and  tattered  battalions,  and  was 
not  seriously  impressed  with  the  horrors  of  war  in 
Central  America.  The  garrison  ordinarily  consists  of 
a  few  files  of  boys  in  shirt  sleeves  and  bare-feet,  lolling 
upon  benches  outside  the  barracks,  whistling  snatches 
from  French  operas,  and  toying  with  their  sword  bayo- 
nets. Every  morning  an  officer,  in  a  faded  blue  uniform, 
seeks  to  impart  the  rudiments  of  discipline  by  drilling 
them  with  a  swaggering  air.  As  I  watched  these  dis- 
orderly evolutions,  I  found  myself  wondering  what 
would  happen,  if  a  squad  of  New  York  police  were 
to  file  suddenly  into  the  street  and  charge  upon  the 
battalions.  Wearing  ragged  and  patched  uniforms 
startling  in  their  range  and  variety,  mounting  guard 


GLIMPSES   OF   CENTRAL  AMERICA  385 

bare-foot  and  carelessly  flinging  their  rifles  across  their 
shoulders  at  every  angle  when  they  march,  they  are 
fantastic  and  comical  soldiers.  The  standing  armies  of 
the  four  republics,  Costa  Rica,  Nicaragua,  Honduras, 
and  Salvador,  vrhen  massed  together,  would  not  exceed 
four  thousand  men.  Guatemala  has  nominally  a  larger 
force  vinder  arms,  but  only  about  two  thousand  men  are 
ordinarily  on  duty.  One  only  needs  to  look  at  these 
warriors  in  order  to  understand  why  the  mortality  is 
very  low  in  the  battles  of  the  civil  wars.  Most  of  the 
shooting  is  done  by  boys  and  is  in  the  air. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  the  political  condition  of 
these  States  would  be  greatly  improved,  if  the  armies 
were  recruited  and  rendered  more  efficient.  When  the 
military  force  is  weak,  it  does  not  serve  the  useful 
purpose  of  maintaining  public  order  and  preventing  the 
outbreak  of  civil  war.  It  is  swayed  by  every  breath  of 
intrigue,  and  is  ordinarily  reorganized  before  a  general 
election,  when  its  services  are  required  for  controlling 
the  choice  of  a  President.  Every  one  of  the  five 
countries  is  constantly  menaced  with  political  disturb- 
ance and  open  revolt.  When  700  raw  soldiers  form 
the  standing  army  of  a  State  like  Costa  Rica,  cabals 
are  inevitably  organized  and  revolutions  frequently 
occur,  since  it  is  practicable  for  intriguers  with  com- 
paratively small  financial  outlay  to  muster  a  force 
equally  strong.  A  good  deal  of  what  is  known  as 
treason  in  Central  America  would  be  more  properly 
classed  as  political  campaigning.  An  ambitious  Cabinet 
Minister  is  anxious  to  become  President,  and  is  baffled 
by  Executive  disfavor.  In  order  to  keep  himself  before 
the  public,  and  to  demonstrate  his  growing  importance, 
he  heads   a   revolt  against  the  government.     A  little 


386  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

powder  is  burned  and  considerable  excitement  is  caused. 
It  is  a  political  campaign  that  is  opened.  While  the 
chances  of  revolutionary  intrigue  are  multiplied  under 
feeble  and  inefficient  military  organization,  the  horrors 
of  war  are  materially  diminished.  A  revolt  in  Costa 
Rica  implies  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  scheming  politi- 
cians to  overthrow  the  President  by  arming  200  or  400 
men  and  taking  a  standing  army  of  700  men  by  surprise. 
These  revolutions  are  not  attended  Avith  much  bloodshed, 
and  are  not  to  be  regarded  as  very  serious  affairs.  If 
the  standing  armies  were  larger  and  under  better  dis- 
cipline, there  would  be  fewer  political  manoeuvres  of 
this  sort. 

General  Barrundia  was  a  revolutionist  of  this  type. 
He  had  been  Secretary  of  War,  and  aspired  to  be 
President  of  Guatemala ;  but  those  in  power  had  plans 
of  their  own,  and  drove  him  into  exile.  Then  he  had 
recourse  to  tactics  which  are  constantly  employed  in 
Central  America.  He  sought  to  advance  his  political 
prospects  by  organizing  a  revolutionary  movement. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  state  of  war  between  Salva- 
dor and  Guatemala,  he  headed  an  unsuccessful  invasion 
from  Mexican  territory.  His  subsequent  tragical  end 
on  the  steamer  Acapulco  in  Guatemalan  waters  was 
caused  by  the  connivance  and  cooperation  of  the  Ameri- 
can Minister  in  an  attempt  to  hand  him  over  to  the 
mercies  of  his  political  enemies.  While  I  was  on  the 
West  Coast  the  report  of  the  Guatemalan  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs  on  the  Barrundia  affair  was  received. 
He  took  pains  to  disavow  having  threatened  to  attack 
and  sink  the  Acapulco^  if  the  surrender  of  the  passenger 
were  refused,  and  demonstrated  that  it  would  have 
been  impossible  for  the  authorities  to  injure  the  vessel 


GLIMPSES   OF   CENTRAL   AMERICA  387 

even  if  they  had  meditated  an  attack,  since  there  was 
not  at  the  port  of  San  Jos^  a  single  piece  of  artillery 
of  any  description,  with  the  exception  of  a  little  toy 
cannon,  which  for  many  years  had  done  service  in  the 
way  of  firing  salutes.  This  official  confession  of  the 
weakness  of  the  coast  defences  served  to  corroborate  a 
statement  made  to  me  in  all  seriousness  by  an  American 
resident  prominently  connected  with  the  life-insurance 
interests  of  New  York.  He  declared  that  the  captain 
of  the  Acapulco  could  have  successfully  defended  his 
ship  against  any  assault  from  shore  by  calling  his  chief 
cook  to  his  aid.  With  a  few  pans  of  boiling  water 
from  the  galley  the  Guatemalan  officers  could  have 
been  beaten  back  to  their  boats,  if  they  had  attempted 
to  board  the  vessel  without  the  consent  of  the  com- 
mander. The  assumption  that  naval  assistance  from 
the  Ranger  and  her  consort  was  required  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  merchant  steamer,  is  as  grotesque  as  the 
idea  that  the  artillery  in  the  toy  forts  on  the  Central 
American  coast  is  available  for  offensive  operations.  It 
is  hardly  practicable  for  a  traveller  with  any  sense  of 
humor  to  take  a  serious  view  either  of  military  or  diplo- 
matic matters  in  that  portion  of  the  world. 

The  progress  of  Mexico  during  the  last  decade  is 
largely  to  be  attributed  to  the  strong  military  force, 
which  has  been  kept  in  reserve  and  rendered  available 
by  the  new  railway  and  telegraph  systems  for  rapid 
operations  in  any  part  of  the  country.  Revolution  and 
brigandage  have  been  brought  to  an  end,  and  industrial 
progress  has  been  promoted  by  strong  military  govern- 
ment, with  railways  in  operation  for  the  transportation 
of  troops.  In  the  same  way  the  construction  of  a  trunk 
railway  system  from  the  Mexican  border  to  Punta  Are- 


388  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

nas  and  Cartago  would  be  of  inestimable  benefit  to  the 
cause  of  civilization  in  Central  America.  With  facili- 
ties for  the  rapid  movement  of  troops,  the  five  govern- 
ments would  not  be  constantly  in  dread  of  revolutionary 
outbreaks,  and  by  strengthening  their  armies  they  would 
secure  what  is  more  urgently  needed  there  than  any- 
thing else  —  stability  of  political  institutions.  Such  a 
trunk  line  would  tend  to  bring  five  jealous  States,  first 
into  intimate  commercial  relations,  and  subsequently 
into  political  union  under  a  confederation  such  as  was 
prematurely  planned  in  1890.  The  tentative  constitu- 
tion adopted  by  the  five  governments,  with  a  system  of 
alternating  national  capitals,  by  which  the  President  of 
each  Republic  would  have  become  in  turn  the  Execu- 
tive of  the  confederation,  was  the  work  of  the  politicians 
then  in  power.  President  Menendez  of  Salvador  was 
the  most  influential  leader  of  the  movement,  and  was 
supported  by  a  majority  of  the  legislators  of  his  State. 
Political  rivals  opposed  the  scheme,  succeeded  in  assassi- 
nating him,  and  obtained  control  of  the  Government. 
Their  supremacy  with  the  subsequent  hostilities  be- 
tween Guatemala  and  Salvador  proved  an  insuperable 
obstacle  to  the  federation  plan.  This  was  a  great  mis- 
fortune, since  the  substitution  of  one  powerful  nation 
for  five  feeble  and  quan-elsome  States  would  have  been 
a  great  gain  for  civilization  in  Spanish  America.  The 
revival  of  the  federation  project  can  hardly  be  expected 
until  the  coffee  republics  are  brought  into  intimate  com- 
mercial relations  by  the  construction  of  a  trunk  railway 
from  the  Mexican  border  to  the  heart  of  Costa  Rica. 

The  foreign  trade  of  the  five  Republics,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  nearly  3,000,000,  and  an  area  equal  to  that  of 
New  England,  the  Middle  States,  and  Maryland,  now 


GLIMPSES   OF   CENTRAL  AMERICA  389 

amounts  to  f  31,000,000  annually,  and  is  steadily  increas- 
ing. Coffee  is  the  most  important  product,  and  it  is 
exported  on  a  large  scale  from  all  the  States  except 
Honduras.  The  commercial  development  of  Central 
America  has  been  to  a  large  extent  the  result  of  steam- 
ship service  on  the  Pacific  coast.  Coffee  has  been  car- 
ried either  to  San  Francisco  or  Panama,  and  from  the 
Isthmus  it  has  been  trans-shipped  mainly  to  Europe 
during  recent  years.  The  import  trade  has  been 
controlled  by  English  and  German  merchants.  The 
completion  of  three  lateral  lines  of  railway  in  Costa 
Rica,  Nicaragua,  and  Guatemala  will  ultimately  transfer 
the  base  of  commercial  operations  from  the  Pacific  to 
the  Caribbean  ports.  As  these  ports  are  already  centres 
of  the  banana  trade,  and  are  in  constant  steam  communi- 
cation with  the  Gulf  and  Atlantic  seaboards,  there  will 
be  cheap  freights  for  coffee,  hides,  and  dye-woods  in  that 
direction.  American  trade  with  Central  America  will 
be  directly  promoted  by  the  construction  of  these  lateral 
railways,  even  if  the  trunk  line  on  the  West  Coast  be 
deferred  for  another  generation,  and  the  interoceanic 
canal  be  abandoned.  The  reciprocity  conventions  made 
with  Costa  Rica,  Guatemala,  and  Salvador  at  the  close 
of  1891,  and  with  Honduras  and  Nicaragua  in  1892, 
will  bring  the  United  States  into  closer  commercial 
union  with  the  coffee  republics,  and  facilitate  an  ex- 
change of  products  of  essentially  different  zones.  The 
completion  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal  will  inevitably  tend 
to  ijicrease  trade  with  these  countries ;  but  the  interests 
of  peace  and  stable  government  are  mainly  dependent 
upon  railway  progress  and  ultimate  federation. 


XX 

OUR   CONTINENT 

EUROPEAN  COMMERCIAL  DEPENDENCIES  —  THE  MONROE  DOC- 
TRINE UNINTELLIGIBLE  TO  SOUTHERN  RACES THE  PAN- 
AMERICAN    CONGRESS  THE    RECIPROCITY    POLICY THE 

THREE  Americas'  railway  —  interoceanic  canals  — 

AMERICAN    TRADE    DEPENDENT    UPON    THE    REPRODUCTION 
OF    EUROPEAN    ENTERPRISE 

With  my  return  to  Panama  in  April,  1891,  where  I 
received  a  warm  welcome  from  Mr.  Adamson,  the 
United  States  Consul-General,  and  many  other  friends 
whom  I  had  met  during  the  previous  year,  my  journeys 
in  Tropical  America  came  to  an  end.  The  circuit 
which  I  had  been  making  was  that  of  the  vast  empire 
won  by  the  maritime  genius  of  mediaeval  Spain,  liber- 
ated by  virtues  smacking  of  the  soil  of  the  New  World, 
and  converted  during  the  last  fifty  years  into  a  com- 
mercial dependency  of  Europe.  A  hundred  years  ago, 
the  Southern  countries  were  inspired  with  a  love  of 
liberty  and  independence,  when  the  American  Colonies 
rose  in  revolt  against  England.  The  work  of  Washing- 
ton in  the  North  was  taken  up  by  Bolivar  in  Venezuela 
and  New  Granada,  by  Hidalgo  and  Morelos  in  Mexico, 
and  by  San  Martin  in  the  far  South.  Americans  strongly 
sympathized  with  the  Spanish  Republics  in  their  pro- 
tracted struggle  against  foreign  domination.  When 
the  victory  was  won  everywhere  except  in  Cuba  and 

390 


OUR   CONTINENT  391 

Porto  Rico,  Spanish  America  was  left  to  work  out  its 
destiny  unaided  and  neglected  by  the  Northern  Repub- 
lic whose  institutions  it  had  copied.  For  fifty  years 
maritime  Europe  has  been  trading  systematically  with 
these  Southern  countries,  suppljdng  immense  masses  of 
capital  for  the  development  of  their  resources,  employ- 
ing a  well-equipped  commercial  marine,  and  funding 
and  refunding  their  national  and  railway  debts.  A 
commercial  empire  lost  in  the  Northern  hemisphere  at 
Yorktown  has  been  regained  by  England  under  the 
Southern  Cross,  and  Americans  preoccupied  with  the 
development  of  their  own  industrial  resources  have 
been  content  to  have  it  so.  Whoever  visits  Tropical 
America  will  find  much  to  criticise  in  the  operation  of 
republican  institutions,  and  much,  withal,  to  admire  in 
the  civic  and  material  progress  of  races  of  mixed  blood. 
If  he  be  an  American  he  will  be  constrained  to  lament 
his  own  country's  neglect  of  commercial  opportunities 
and  political  responsibilities  in  contributing  to  the 
world's  work  of  civilization. 

Maritime  Europe  has  taken  possession  of  the  import 
markets  of  these  Southern  countries,  and  converted  them 
into  commercial  dependencies,  while  Americans  have 
been  juggling  with  a  phrase.  That  is  a  rough  way  of 
stating  the  case.  England,  Germany,  and  France  have 
opened  rapid  steamship  communications  with  Brazil, 
the  Plate  countries,  the  West  Coast  and  the  Isthmus, 
and  secured  the  general  introduction  of  their  manu- 
factures by  the  establishment  of  mercantile  houses  in 
the  chief  centres  of  population.  They  have  assiduously 
cultivated  trade  relations  with  that  portion  of  the  world, 
deliberately  studied  the  requirements  of  the  climate  and 
the  tastes  and  habits  of   the  people,  and  supplied   tlie 


892  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

capital  required  for  the  construction  of  railways  and 
the  development  of  mineral  and  agricultural  resources. 
From  Guatemala  to  Patagonia  the  weight  of  English 
money  and  the  force  of  German  mercantile  energy 
have  been  felt.  The  tremendous  expansion  of  European 
commerce  during  the  last  thirty  years,  and  the  enormous 
investments  of  English  and  French  capital  in  the  mines 
and  public  works  of  that  vast  region,  are  facts  easily 
understood  by  nations  without  financial  resources  of 
their  own,  and  in  need  of  a  progressive  policy  of  inter- 
nal improvement.  Tropical  America  has  been  largely 
Europeanized  while  the  English-speaking  race  of  the 
Northern  Republic  has  been  allowing  its  commercial 
marine  to  disappear  from  the  seas,  and  its  statesmen  to 
conjure  aimlessly  with  the  high-sounding  phrases  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine. 

Dread  of  European  colonization  and  encroachment 
has  passed  away,  except  in  Venezuela  ;  and  each  nation 
is  confident  of  its  own  ability  to  repel  foreign  invasion 
without  assistance  or  moral  support  from  the  Northern 
Republic.  It  never  enters  into  the  Spanish- American's 
mind  that  the  diplomacy  of  Washington  has  been  help- 
ful to  him  during  the  present  century.  He  attributes 
the  political  emancipation  of  his  country  to  his  own 
civic  virtues,  and  its  material  development  to  his  own 
energy  aided  by  European  investments.  The  Monroe 
Doctrine  as  a  proclamation  of  the  homogeneity  of  all 
interests  affecting  the  American  Continent  is  wholly 
unintelligible  to  him. 

This  confusion  of  mind  respecting  what  is  often 
described  as  the  chief  canon  of  American  diplomacy 
ought  not  to  excite  surprise  in  view  of  the  historical 
evidence  of  the  uncertainty  and  vacillation  with  which 


OUR   CONTINENT  393 

the  Monroe  Doctrine  has  been  carried  into  practice.  As 
soon  as  it  was  proclaimed  the  Spanish-American  States 
endeavored  to  make  use  of  it  by  inviting  the  United 
States  to  send  delegates  to  an  amphictyonic  council  to 
be  held  at  Panama.  The  scheme  appealed  at  once  to 
the  imagination  of  Mr.  Clay,  who  was  then  Secretary  of 
State,  and  had  been  an  enthusiastic  champion  of  the 
liberties  of  the  races  rising  in  revolt  against  Spain. 
The  Administration  of  the  second  Adams  warmly 
approved  of  the  project,  and  nominated  a  Commission  to 
represent  the  United  States  in  an  assembly  of  Spanish- 
American  States,  which  were  apparently  anxious  to  place 
themselves  under  the  leadership  of  the  Northern  Repub- 
lic, as  well  as  to  take  common  counsel  for  promoting 
mutual  security  and  independence.  President  Adams, 
while  enumerating  in  a  special  Message  the  advantages 
to  be  derived  from  the  united  action  of  republican 
States,  and  from  the  establishment  of  liberal  principles 
of  commercial  intercourse,  maritime  neutrality,  and 
religious  toleration,  announced  that  the  Panama  Con- 
gress would  probably  adopt  the  Monroe  Doctrine  as  an 
agreement  that  each  country  must  guard  its  own  terri- 
tory from  European  encroachment.  This  interpretation 
of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  by  its  real  author  seemed  to 
forestall  the  idea  that  the  United  States  intended  to 
extend  its  protection  to  Spanish-American  countries 
menaced  with  European  invasion.  It  was  a  plain  inti- 
mation that  each  country  was  to  defend  its  own  ter- 
ritories by  resources  at  its  command.  The  special 
Message  excited  acrimonious  debate  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  and  the  Commission  was  not  authorized 
without  strenuous  resistance  and  protracted  delay.  The 
International    Conference   was  gradually    narrowed  at 


394  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

Washington  into  a  benevolent  scheme  for  giving  good 
advice  to  the  Spanish  countries  on  various  safe  subjects. 
The  original  purpose  of  forming  a  league  for  common 
defence  and  for  the  liberation  of  Cuba  was  abandoned. 
The  American  commissioners  arrived  at  Panama  after 
the  adjournment  of  the  Congress,  which  in  the  absence 
of  encouragement  from  the  United  States  proved  a 
failure. 

This  was  the  first  attempt  to  test  the  practical  efficacy 
of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  and  the  results  did  not  impress 
Spanish  America  favorably.  As  time  went  on,  the 
principle  was  revived  only  to  be  compromised  in  con- 
nection with  projects  for  the  construction  of  an  inter- 
oceanic  water-way  across  Central  America.  In  the 
Clayton-Bulwer  treaty,  the  withdrawal  of  all  English 
claims  to  sovereignty  over  the  coasts  of  Nicaragua  and 
Honduras  was  nominally  secured  by  the  United  States. 
In  return  for  a  series  of  promises  which  have  not  been 
fulfilled  to  this  day,  either  in  Belize,  or  in  the  Mosquito 
Reservation,  Great  Britain  was  admitted  in  1850,  to  an 
equal  share  in  the  protectorate  of  any  interoceanic 
canal,  which  might  be  constructed.  There  was  nothing 
in  that  tangled  skein  of  baffled  and  inexplicable  Ameri- 
can diplomacy  to  inspire  Spanish  America  with  respect 
for  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  The  Convention  with  Colom- 
bia, for  securing  American  protection  of  the  Panama 
Railway,  was  more  intelligible;  but  when  the  French 
Canal  was  projected,  a  generation  afterward,  it  seemed 
to  be  impracticable  for  the  United  States  to  embody  in 
its  diplomatic  policy  a  definite  basis  of  action.  Equally 
inefficient  were  the  protests  of  the  Washington  Gov- 
ernment against  the  invasion  of  Venezuelan  territory 
by  the  English  colonists  of  Guiana.     The  French  evac- 


OUR   CONTINENT  395 

uation  of  Mexico,  and  the  control  of  the  railway  at  the 
Isthmus,  were  the  chief  results  of  fifty  years  of  diplo- 
matic exposition  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  The  effect 
of  these  achievements  was  largely  counteracted  by  fail- 
ures elsewhere,  and  particularly  in  Central  America. 

The  memories  of  the  Panama  Congress  were  revived  on 
October  2,  1889,  when  the  Pan-American  Congress  met 
in  Washington  tb  discuss  measures  tending  to  promote 
the  peace  and  prosperity  of  all  republican  nations  on 
the  American  continent.  This  meeting  was  held  in 
response  to  invitations  which  the  American  Congress 
had  authorized  the  government  to  issue.  The  sessions 
were  prolonged  for  twenty  weeks,  during  which  reports 
were  received  on  commercial  union,  international  arbi- 
tration, steamship  communications,  railways,  banking 
facilities,  coinage,  weights,  measures,  patents,  and  trade- 
marks. As  the  Pan-American  Congress  was  not  armed 
with  treaty-making  powers,  its  recommendations  had  no 
binding  force  ;  but  the  moral  effect  of  promoting  an 
amicable  exchange  of  thought,  and  neighborly  good- 
will, was  produced.  The  most  important  results  of  the 
meeting  were  the  recommendations  respecting  partial 
treaties  of  reciprocity,  the  adoption  by  representatives 
of  all  the  powers  except  Chili,  of  a  resolution  in  favor 
of  compulsory  arbitration,  as  an  expedient  for  prevent- 
ing war,  and  the  authorization  of  preliminary  surveys 
for  a  system  of  railways  to  connect  the  Three  Americas. 

The  majority  report  of  the  Committee  on  Customs 
Union  condemned  as  impracticable,  or  at  least  as  pre- 
mature, an  unrestricted  exchange  of  products  between 
the  American  nations ;  but  advised  the  negotiation  of 
partial  schemes  of  reciprocity,  based  upon  equivalent 
advantages.     The  United  States  promptly  acted  upon 


396  TROPICAL  AMERICA 

these  recommendations,  and  is  now  carrying  out  a 
policy  which  received  in  advance  the  approval  of  the 
representatives  of  all  the  powers  excei^t  Chili,  the  Ar- 
gentine Republic,  and  Paraguay.  In  order  to  convert 
reciprocity  into  a  lever  for  opening  Southern  markets, 
it  was  only  necessary  to  bring  it  to  bear  upon  Brazil, 
and  the  Spanish  West  Indies,  from  which  the  United 
States  was  drawing  its  main  supplies  of  coffee  and  sugar. 
If  it  had  been  impracticable  to  negotiate  any  commercial 
conventions,  all  the  States  and  European  dependencies 
would  have  remained  on  equal  terms  when  the  privileges 
of  a  free  market  were  withdrawn.  As  soon  as  Brazil 
and  Spain  were  drawn  into  diplomatic  engagements,  a 
basis  for  future  discrimination  in  their  favor  was  secured. 
The  United  States  Government  was  highly  favored  by 
circumstances  in  making  the  earliest  conventions.  Bra- 
zil was  readily  brought  into  a  commercial  alliance  after 
the  Revolution.  The  youngest  Republic  was  grateful 
to  the  United  States.  It  strongly  supported  the  Pan- 
American  policy  at  Washington,  promptly  accepted  the 
principle  of  compulsory  arbitration,  and  as  soon  as  it 
was  approached  on  the  subject  of  commercial  union, 
made  a  treaty  highly  favorable  to  the  United  States. 
This  convention,  which  was  grounded  upon  a  permanent 
free  market  for  coffee,  became  a  base  for  diplomatic 
action  with  Venezuela,  Mexico,  and  Central  America, 
whose  chief  product  would  be  exposed  to  a  discrimi- 
nating duty  in  the  United  States,  after  January  1,  1892, 
if  they  neglected  to  comply  with  the  requirements  of 
equitable  trade. 

The  Sjjanish  Convention  furnished  a  similar  base  for 
opening  the  sugar-producing  countries  to  American 
exports.      It  was   followed   almost  immediately    by   a 


OUR    CONTINENT  397 

convention  with  San  Domingo.  The  United  States 
Government  was  aided  in  its  diplomacy  in  that  quarter 
by  the  rivalries  existing  between  the  black  republics. 
When  Hayti,  whose  trade  was  largely  controlled  by 
France,  rejected  the  proposals  for  the  lease  of  a  coaling- 
station,  and  displayed  indifference  to  commercial  rela- 
tions with  the  United  States,  the  less  prosperous  rival, 
on  the  other  side  of  the  island,  solicited  reciprocity,  and 
obtained  it,  on  more  favorable  terms  than  either  Brazil 
or  the  Spanish  West  Indies  had  done.  By  arrange- 
ments, subsequently  made  with  Germany,  concessions 
were  obtained  for  American  agricultural  products,  in 
return  for  the  free  market  for  beet  sugar.  Toward  the 
close  of  1891  Commissioners  from  British  Guiana,  Ja- 
maica, Trinidad,  Barbadoes,  and  the  Windward  and 
Leeward  groups  of  the  British  West  Indies,  succeeded 
in  securing  the  same  market  by  agreeing  to  reduce  the 
import  duties  upon  American  flour  and  other  products. 
Hawaii  being  already  included  in  the  reciprocity  ar- 
rangements, the  resources  of  the  free  market  for  sugar 
were  practically  exhausted  when,  on  the  basis  of  the 
importations  of  1890,  conventions  were  made  with  Bra- 
zil, the  Spanish  West  Indies,  San  Domingo,  Germany, 
and  the  British  West  Indies,  from  which  86.15  per  cent 
of  the  foreign  supply  of  the  United  States  was'  obtained. 
Reciprocity  conventions  with  Brazil,  Salvador,  Costa 
Rica,  Guatemala,  Honduras,  Nicaragua,  and  the  West 
Indies  provided  fair  exchange  for  the  bulk  of  the  coffee 
importations. 

Reciprocity  is  the  first  practical  attempt  to  substitute 
for  the  vague  phrases  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  a  basis  of 
economic  union  between  the  various  nations  of  the 
American   Continent.      It  involves  an  equalization  of 


398  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

commercial  relations  by  the  reduction  of  revenue  duties 
on  each  side.  The  free  market  provided  in  the  United 
States  for  Southern  produce  has  cheapened  staples  of 
food  by  the  removal  of  revenue  duties.  In  the  same 
way  the  import  duties  levied  upon  flour  and  provisions 
in  Brazil,  Spanish  America,  and  the  West  Indies  have 
been  large  sources  of  revenue.  When  these  are  reduced, 
or  taken  off  altogether,  as  the  result  of  reciprocity,  the 
imported  food  supplies  of  impoverished  populations  are 
cheapened.  Here  is  an  economic  principle  of  inestima- 
ble benefit  to  all  the  countries  brought  into  commercial 
union.  What  has  determined  the  negotiation  of  the 
treaties,  and  the  success  of  the  policy,  is  the  weight  of 
the  American  market.  The  total  imports  in  1890  from 
South  America,  the  West  Indies,  Central  America,  and 
Mexico  into  the  United  States  amounted  to  $198,940,575. 
The  fact  that  the  bulk  of  the  produce  of  the  Southern 
countries  now  finds  not  only  its  best,  but  an  essentially 
free  market  in  the  United  States,  has  been  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  problem  of  equalizing  exchanges.  Europe 
has  invested  not  less  than  $1,500,000,000,  during  the 
last  thirty  years,  in  railways,  mines,  and  national  secu- 
rities in  Brazil,  the  Argentine,  Chili,  Peru,  and  other 
South  American  States.  That  enormous  mass  of  capital 
has  exerted  an  attractive  force  in  promoting  general 
trade  with  Europe.  The  requirements  of  a  nation  of 
63,000,000  of  consumers,  on  the  other  hand,  have  created 
a  great  market  for  tropical  produce  in  the  United  States. 
The  weight  of  that  market  is  to  be  felt  hereafter  as  a 
determining  force  in  regulating  commercial  exchanges. 
Another  recommendation  of  the  Pan-American  Con- 
gress has  been  carried  into  effect  by  the  organization 
of   an    international    commission    for   making  prelimi- 


OUR   CONTINENT  399 

nary  surveys  for  a  continuous  line  of  railway  uniting 
the  two  hemispheres.  On  the  Isthmus  this  project 
is  regarded  as  chimerical.  This  is  natural,  for 
Colon  and  Panama  owe  their  existence  to  the  transit 
trade  between  the  two  oceans.  Transportation  on 
North  and  South  lines  is  considered  as  visionary  as 
rapid  transit  to  the  moon.  All  the  traditions  of  the 
Isthmus  from  the  days  when  Columbus  coasted  from 
the  Gulf  of  Honduras  to  the  Bay  of  Limon  in  search 
of  a  passage  to  the  East  Indies  are  arrayed  against  it. 
Panama  is  separated  by  long  reaches  of  trackless  wilder- 
ness from  the  Magdalena  valley  on  one  side  and  on  the 
other  from  the  fruitful  plateau  of  San  Jos^  in  Costa 
Rica.  It  lacks  the  imagination  required  for  anticipat- 
ing the  construction  of  a  railway  from  Southern  Mexico 
to  Bogotd.  When  enthusiasts  assure  them  that  only 
5000  miles  of  roadbed  will  have  to  be  graded  and 
put  in  operation  in  order  to  establish  railway  service 
between  New  York  and  Buenos  Ayres,  residents  of 
Panama  politely  intimate  that  adequate  facilities  for 
humane  treatment  of  the  insane  are  lacking  on  the 
Isthmus.  "  Take  your  map  of  the  world,"  one  of  the 
most  influential  Americans  on  the  Isthmus  said  to  me, 
"  and  you  will  see  that  the  main  railway  systems  follow 
the  parallels  rather  than  the  meridians.  Read  the  his- 
tory of  commerce,  and  you  will  learn  that  the  lines  of 
trade  have  always  run  east  and  west,  never  north  and 
south.  The  law  of  the  planet  on  its  axis  is  the  law  of 
modern  progress.  The  winds  of  heaven  were  designed 
to  blow  the  whitening  sails  of  commerce  through  an 
interoceanic  canal.  It  is  easier  and  more  natural  to 
marry  two  oceans  than  two  continents." 

As  I  listened  to  these  generalizations   I   recalled  a 


400  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

bright  morning  in  Buenos  Ayres  when  two  railway  en- 
thusiasts took  my  maps  and  demonstrated  to  their  own 
satisfaction  the  facility  with  which  the  United  States 
could  be  brought  into  railway  communication  with  the 
Plate.  One  of  my  visitors  was  ex-Minister  Osborne, 
who  had  secured  from  the  Governrnent  of  Paraguay 
concessions  for  the  construction  of  two  lines  of  railway 
above  Asuncion  across  the  Chaco  to  the  Bolivian  border. 
The  other  was  Russell  R.  Peeler,  who  had  given  em- 
phatic testimony  before  the  United  States  commission- 
ers in  favor  of  a  continental  trunk  railway  as  a  means 
of  reviving  American  trade.  They  did  not  believe  that 
competition  with  European  maritime  powers  was  practi- 
cable on  the  sea,  but  considered  the  establishment  of  a 
trunk  railway,  which  could  be  tapped  by  various  coun- 
tries, as  the  only  possible  expedient  for  the  restoration  of 
American  commercial  ascendency  in  the  Southern  hemi- 
sphere. Mr.  Peeler's  face  lighted  up  with  a  fine  glow  of 
enthusiasm  as  he  worked  out  on  paper  the  details  of  the 
Three  Americas  Railway.  On  another  occasion  an  Ameri- 
can Minister  over  a  bottle  of  champagne  traced  for  me 
an  alternative  route  through  Brazil  to  Maranhao  as  a  ter- 
minal point,  and  still  another  American  diplomatist  in- 
dicated Puerto  Cabello  in  Venezuela  as  the  Caribbean 
base  of  a  railway  system  to  be  constructed  under  a  guar- 
antee of  interest  payments  from  Washington. 

With  these  exceptions  all  sober-minded  Americans 
whom  I  met  in  my  journeys  ridiculed  these  railway 
projects  as  vagaries  of  speculators  and  dreamers  of  the 
Sellers  type.  Mr.  Thorndike,  in  Lima,  who  had  been 
an  active  railway  manager  and  owner  for  many  years, 
told  me  that  he  had  no  faith  in  the  Three  Americas  line, 
and  expressed  surprise  that  it  should  be  seriously  con- 


OUR   CONTINENT  401 

sidered  in  the  United  States.  The  distances,  ill  his 
judgment,  were  so  great  that  if  the  continental  railway 
were  built,  freight  could  not  be  carried  in  competition 
with  steamers.  Consul-General  Adamson  in  Panama 
frankly  confessed  that  he  lacked  the  patience  required 
for  discussing  so  chimerical  a  scheme  as  a  continental 
railway.  My  own  observations  were  in  accord  with 
these  conclusions  with  the  single  exception  that  the  ex- 
tension of  the  Mexican  system  to  Costa  Rica  seemed  to 
me  entirely  feasible.  In  Buenos  Ayres  I  was  told  that 
the  greater  part  of  the  work  had  already  been  provided 
for  by  the  Southern  Republics,  and  that  an  American 
corporation  would  not  have  to  construct  more  than 
1,500  miles  of  railway;  but  I  have  failed  to  find  in  my 
journeys  any  important  link  in  the  continental  system. 
In  Colombia  there  are  only  a  few  short  railways.  In 
Ecuador  there  may  be  a  line  some  day  between  Quito 
and  Guayaquil,  but  it  will  be  hundreds  of  miles  to  the 
west  of  any  practicable  trunk  route.  In  Peru  there  is 
a  series  of  lateral  railways,  but  no  line  which  would  be 
a  link  in  the  chain  running  north  and  south.  The 
Chilians  have  carried  a  railway  from  Antofagasta  into 
Bolivia,  but  that  would  be  only  a  feeder  for  a  conti- 
nental line.  Buenos  Ayres  and  Valparaiso  will  be 
brought  into  railway  communication  within  three  years 
by  the  tunnelling  of  the  Cumbre  in  Uspallata,  but  that 
system  follows  the  parallels  rather  than  the  meridians. 
The  narrow  gauge  line  from  Cordova  to  the  Bolivian 
frontier  could  not  be  connected  with  the  proposed  trunk 
railway.  The  coffee  railways  of  Brazil  lie  outside  tlie 
range  of  the  continental  scheme. 

Certainly  the  distances   are    appalling  even  to  one 
who  has  not  been  trained  to  believe  that  the  Isthmus 


402  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

was  designed  by  nature  to  facilitate  trade  from  ocean 
to  ocean.  From  New  York  to  Buenos  Ayres  by  the 
most  practical  route  yet  proposed  there  would  be  a 
railway  mileage  of  over  8100.  From  the  southern 
terminus  of  the  Mexican  system  to  New  York  there 
is  now  railway  communication  for  a  distance  of  3200 
miles.  About  5000  miles  of  railway  will  be  required 
in  order  to  connect  Buenos  Ayres  with  New  York  and 
Chicago.  Not  only  are  all  the  links  missing,  but  the 
sections  through  which  the  projectors  hope  to  carry  the 
line  are  either  inhabited  by  Indians  or  are  forests  with- 
out population.  The  necessity  of  avoiding,  on  one  side, 
the  Cordilleras,  and,  on  the  other,  rivers  which  cannot  be 
bridged,  diverts  the  proposed  line  from  the  populated 
seaboard  to  unexplored  and  uninhabited  regions  like 
the  Chaco  and  the  Peruvian  Montana.  In  order  to 
convert  such  a  railway  into  a  remunerative  enterprise, 
it  would  be  necessary  to  open  vast  tracts  to  immigra- 
tion, and  to  empty  the  surplus  population  of  Europe 
into  them.  When  the  country  was  once  populated,  and 
industries  established  in  what  is  now  a  wilderness  with 
huddles  of  Indian  huts,  the  movement  of  freight  would 
be  toward  the  coast  by  the  lateral  lines,  rather  than 
northward  to  the  United  States.  A  merchant  marine 
equal  in  efficiency  to  that  of  maritime  Europe  would 
be  indispensable  for  the  development  of  American  trade, 
even  if  the  continental  railway  project  were  carried 
out.  The  distances  would  be  so  great  that  tropical 
produce  could  not  be  supplied  to  the  northern  market 
by  rail  in  competition  with  steamship  freights. 

An  interoceanic  canal  would  be  as  inefficient  an  ex- 
pedient as  a  continental  railway  for  the  development 
of   American  trade   unless  it   were    supplemented   by 


OUR   CONTINENT  403 

maritime  and  mercantile  energy.  The  Panama  Canal, 
if  completed,  will  bring  the  west  coast  of  South  Amer- 
ica into  direct  water  communication  with  New  York; 
but  unless  there  are  American  steamship  lines  on  that 
coast,  and  American  wholesale  houses  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  manufactures,  the  waterway  cannot  directly 
promote  trade.  When  either  the  Panama  or  the  Nica- 
ragua Canal  is  advocated  as  a  necessity  for  the  enlarge- 
ment of  American  trade  with  the  West  Coast,  Central 
America,  China,  Japan,  and  Australia,  the  fact  is  over- 
looked that  with  San  Francisco  as  a  base  there  is 
already  direct  water  communication  with  all  these  coun- 
tries. What  has  been  lacking  has  been  American 
energy  in  opening  these  foreign  markets.  With  Cali- 
fornia producing  everything  required  for  two  thousand 
miles  of  rainless  coast  in  South  America,  there  has 
been  no  organized  attempt  to  compete  with  the  English 
and  Chilians  in  the  carrying  trade.  Australia  and 
China  have  not  been  converted  into  foreign  markets  by 
maritime  energy  and  mercantile  enterprise.  The  water- 
way may  be  constructed,  but  unless  there  is  a  change 
of  American  policy,  it  will  be  used  mainly  by  European 
shipping  in  carrying  English  and  German  manufactures 
to  foreign  markets,  where  American  competition  is  not 
conducted  with  intelligence  and  success. 

A  direct  proof  of  this  statement  is  to  be  found  in 
the  effect  of  the  construction  of  the  Panama  Railway. 
That  was  an  American  enterprise  undertaken  in  the 
interest  of  American  trade  ;  but  it  has  benefited  Euro- 
pean manufactures  to  a  large  extent.  The  control  of 
the  transit  trade,  now  averaging  $50,000,000  a  year,  by 
an  American  corporation,  has  not  retarded  the  devel- 
opment of  English  and  German  trade  with  the  West 


404  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

Coast.  American  trade  was  not  promoted  by  that 
enterprise  at  the  expense  of  foreign  interests.  The 
control  of  six-sevenths  of  the  shares  of  the  railway- 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  French  Canal  Company 
without  having  any  appreciable  effect  upon  foreign 
trade.  Whether  the  canal  be  French,  English,  or 
American,  the  markets  opened  by  more  direct  water 
communication  will  be  controlled  by  that  nation  whose 
merchants  and  steamship  lines  vigorously  and  success- 
fully compete  for  them. 

An  interoceanic  canal,  either  at  Panama  or  at  Nica- 
ragua, will  have  the  important  effect  of  bringing  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  seaboards  into  closer  relations  for 
purposes  of  military  and  naval  defence.  On  this  ground 
an  American  policy  is  needed  respecting  the  Canals. 
The  United  States  can  anticipate  the  completion  of 
either  waterway  with  European  capital  by  taking  hold 
either  of  one  or  of  the  other  as  a  government  work  and 
controlling  it  as  such  for  military  purposes,  while  open- 
ing it  to  the  commerce  of  the  world.  This  would  be 
a  practical  application  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  and  it 
would  be  understood  both  in  Europe  and  throughout 
Spanish  America.  The  generalizations  which  have  ap- 
peared in  Presidential  messages  and  Congressional  reso- 
lutions during  the  last  twenty  years  may  have  been 
rhetorical  and  patriotic,  but  they  have  not  furnished  a 
basis  for  a  definite  canal  policy.  What  is  needed  is 
action  by  which  one  canal  or  the  other  may  be  built 
without  engineering  mismanagement,  and  speculative 
recklessness,  shorter  lines  of  ocean  transportation  opened, 
and  the  control  of  the  waterway  resolutely  asserted  and 
maintained.  Such  a  work  might  cost  $100,000,000  or 
even   $200,000,000;    but   it   would   be   an   investment 


OUE   CONTIiSrENT  405 

under  American  control,  and  not  like  the  81,000,000,000 
which  Europe  flung  into  the  whirlpool  of  Argentine 
speculation. 

Whether  the  continental  railway  be  built,  or  an  inter- 
oceanic  waterway  opened,  or  a  complete  series  of  reci- 
procity treaties  negotiated,  the  permanent  development 
of  American  trade  with  the  Southern  Republics  requires 
the  reproduction  of  European  mercantile  and  maritime 
enterprise.  These  policies,  singly  or  collectively,  must 
be  supplemented  by  the  multiplication  of  steamship  lines 
and  the  establishment  of  wholesale  houses  in  all  the 
important  centres  of  Southern  trade.  While  reciproc- 
ity will  be  a  substantial  gain  to  consumers  North  and 
South,  and  will  tend  to  increase  the  exchanges  of  the 
food  products  of  essentially  different  zones,  its  efficiency 
as  a  lever  for  opening  foreign  markets  for  manufac- 
tures of  cotton,  rubber,  leather,  iron,  steel,  glass,  and 
paper,  will  probably  be  less  than  is  generally  supposed. 
This  is  a  conclusion  which  I  have  formed  after  talking 
with  merchants  in  all  portions  of  Tropical  America,  and 
observing  the  lack  of  intelligence  and  enterprise  dis- 
played by  Northern  manufacturers.  Reciprocity  offers 
large  opportunities  for  an  expansion  of  American  com- 
merce and  influence ;  but  full  advantage  cannot  be  taken 
of  an  enlightened  policy  so  long  as  mercantile  energy  is 
confined  to  the  home  market,  and  the  Southern  Hemi- 
sphere is  neglected  and  surrendered  to  European  com- 
petitors. American  manufacturers  have  not  known 
what  was  wanted  in  tropical  countries.  American  mer- 
chants have  not  learned  how  to  ship,  pack,  and  sell 
goods  for  the  Southern  market.  Ignorance  of  the  com- 
mercial requirements  and  social  conditions  of  the  Span- 
ish  Republics   has   been,    and   still   remains,  the  chief 


406  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

obstacle  to  the  enlargement  of  American  trade.  Unless 
this  difficulty  can  be  overcome,  differential  advantages 
of  twenty-five  or  fifty  per  cent  secured  by  treaty  in 
cottons  and  hardware  will  be  of  little  avail. 

At  Para  I  found  an  American  wholesale  house  and 
one  also  in  Pernambuco ;  but  hardly  another  one  on  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  south  of  the  Amazon  until  I  reached 
Montevideo.  On  the  West  Coast  there  were  several 
mercantile  houses  dealing  largely  but  not  exclusively 
in  American  goods.  In  Venezuela,  Cuba,  and  British 
West  Indies  and  Mexico  there  are  Americans  on  the 
ground,  and  the  effect  of  their  presence  and  intelligent 
supervision  of  the  details  of  business  is  disclosed  by  a 
substantial  increase  in  the  sale  of  manufactures  from 
the  United  States.  In  the  Brazilian  coast  towns,  in  the 
Plate  countries,  on  the  West  Coast,  in  Central  America, 
Mexico,  and  the  West  Indies,  English,  French,  and 
German  merchants  are  found  in  wholesale  houses.  They 
are  conversant  with  all  the  details  of  customs  law,  in- 
terior transportation,  invoicing  of  goods,  and  the  pecu- 
liarities of  public  taste.  They  carry  large  stocks  from 
which  retail  dealers  can  replenish  their  shelves  when- 
ever they  choose  to  order  goods,  and  there  is  no  delay 
in  filling  orders,  and  there  are  no  costly  blunders  in 
packing  and  invoicing  by  which  duties  are  unnecessarily 
increased.  This  is  the  method  adopted  by  mercantile 
Europe  in  introducing  its  manufactures.  American 
manufacturers,  meanwhile,  have  been  seeking  to  com- 
pete with  them  by  soliciting  the  aid  of  consuls  in 
peddling  their  wares,  and  by  sending  over  the  ground 
commercial  travellers  unfamiliar  with  the  native  lan- 
guage, and  unprepared  to  tell  retail  dealers  what  im- 
portations from   the    United   States  would  cost  when 


OUR   CONTINENT  407 

placed  on  their  counters  or  when  they  could  get  them. 
The  establishment  of  wholesale  houses  in  all  the  impor- 
tant centres  of  population  of  the  West  Indies,  Mexico, 
Central  America,  and  South  America  would  be  of  greater 
practical  value  in  promoting  the  introduction  of  Ameri- 
can manufactures  than  all  the  reciprocity  conventions 
which  have  been  negotiated. 

Maritime  energy,  by  which  a  new  commercial  marine 
can  be  brought  into  existence  under  the  national  flasr,  is 
also  needed  in  order  that  full  advantage  may  be  derived 
from  favorable  commercial  conventions.  There  are  now 
six  American  steamship  lines  participating  in  the  carry- 
ing trade  of  the  Southern  countries,  a  feeble  remnant  of 
a  merchant  fleet  which  was  once  the  pride  and  glory  of 
a  maritime  nation.  Only  one  of  these  crosses  the  equa- 
tor, calling  at  St.  Thomas,  Martinique,  and  Barbadoes 
before  making  the  circuit  of  the  Brazilian  coast.  The 
exports  of  the  Southern  countries,  amounting,  in  1890, 
to  nearly  $200,000,000,  were. largely  brought  into  Ameri- 
can ports  by  foreign  ships,  many  of  which  returned  to 
the  tropics  by  way  of  Europe,  thereby  depriving  mer- 
chants and  manufacturers  of  the  advantage  of  direct 
trade  in  exchangee.  I  talked  with  Americans  in  all  the 
countries  which  I  visited,  and  ascertained  that  there 
was  no  divergence  of  opinion  among  them  on  this  sub- 
ject. They  all  attributed  the  commercial  ascendancy  of 
maritime  Europe  very  largely  to  the  intelligence  and 
energy  with  which  steam  communication  had  been 
opened  with  Tropical  America.  When  commerce  is 
undertaken  with  nations  which  have  no  merchant  fleets 
of  their  own,  the  flag  advertises  foreign  enterprise.  The 
absence  of  the  American  flag,  in  ports  crowded  with 
European  shipping,  is  accepted  as  an  unerring  indica- 


408  TROPICAL   AMERICA 

tion  of  lack  of  energy.  When  the  United  States  ceases 
to  be  the  only  nation  which  deliberately  neglects  its 
shipping  interests,  large  results  may  be  confidently 
anticipated  from  the  reciprocit}''  policy,  but  not  other- 
wise. Wherever  Americans  have  made  an  earnest  effort 
to  compete  with  foreigners,  as  in  Cuba,  Venezuela,  and 
Mexico,  they  have  been  successful.  With  mercantile 
energy  and  ample  steamship,  mail,  and  banking  facilities, 
they  will  not  fail  in  any  quarter  of  Tropical  America. 
Preoccupied  with  the  development  of  their  own  coun- 
try, they  have  neglected  a  great  field,  where  there  is  a 
foreign  trade  of  over  $1,200,000,000  a  year.  It  is  a 
commerce  worth  competing  for  with  all  the  resources  of 
American  energy. 

The  moral  effect  of  intimate  trade  relations,  between 
the  United  States  and  the  Southern  Republics,  will  be 
very  great.  Countries  which  have  been  powerfully 
influenced  by  nations  dominated  by  monarchical  ideas 
have  much  to  learn  from  the  Northern  Republic,  whose 
political  institutions  they  have  imperfectly  assimilated. 
Whoever  visits  Tropical  America  has  to  make  allowance 
for  cycles  of  retarded  development  before  he  can  be 
adequately  impressed  with  the  fact  that  the  Latin  race, 
while  it  has  a  different  strain  from  Anglo-Saxon  blood, 
is  performing  useful  functions  in  the  economy  of  civili- 
zation. The  Southern  half  of  the  continent  bears  at 
once  the  impress  of  the  vices  and  the  virtues  of  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  conquest.  The  vices  are  military  su- 
premacy, irresponsible  power  and  official  corruption,  and 
contact  with  Europe,  where  a  spirit  of  militarism  pre- 
vails, and  where  bond-holding  syndicates  are  reaching 
after  the  highest  rates  of  interest  to  be  obtained  from 
impoverished    nations,   has    enlarged    and    aggravated 


OUR   CONTINENT  409 

them.  The  virtues  are  sturdy  independence,  a  genuine 
love  of  liberty,  flexibility  in  dealing  with  mixed  races, 
and  faith  in  the  superior  resources  of  the  New  World. 
These  virtues  would  have  been  promoted  by  closer 
commercial  intercourse  with  the  United  States.  The 
Argentine,  as  a  commercial  dependency  of  Europe,  has 
been  ruled  by  political  cabals,  debauched  by  foreign 
money-lenders,  and  plundered  by  speculative  adventur- 
ers. Mexico,  under  the  influence  of  American  capital 
and  railway  construction,  has  a  strong  and  enlight- 
ened national  government,  and  a  well-ordered  system  of 
finance.  The  United  States  can  do  more  than  Europe, 
in  Tropical  America,  toward  organizing  and  directing 
the  moral  force  of  public  opinion,  upon  which  the  suc- 
cess and  practical  efficiency  of  genuine  republican  in- 
stitutions depend.  It  only  needs  to  be  brought  into 
constant  commercial  intercourse  with  all  the  Southern 
countries  in"  order  to  accomplish  a  great  work  for  civili- 
zation. 


Typography  by  J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co.,  Boston,  U.S.A. 
Presswoik  by  Berwick  &  Smith,  lioston,  U.S.A. 


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